Lost Memories
by Alia-dreamer
Summary: Claire finds herself in her seventh year of Hogwarts with no memory of her life there. Through entries in her diary, information from her friends and teachers, and mysterious dreams, she begins to piece together what happened. Ron X OC
1. She

Hey, everyone. This is Alia.dreamer. Just thought you might want to know that my friend, Mandi, wrote this story. She just hasn't figured out how to use yet. Have fun reading the story. 

Disclaimer: Harry and his friends and foes belong to J.K.Rowling. However, Claire and this plot belong to my dear friend, Mandi. So NO STEALING!

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Lost Memories

Chapter One

_She's Returned _

Claire walked quickly down the street to her home. It was almost noon and if she didn't get back before lunch time she was sure her mother would have a fit. She had been hoping to have a little more trust from her mother when she turned eleven the previous week but that didn't happen.

She turned and ran up her driveway and through the front door. 11:58. Perfect. She made it with minutes to spare. She walked into the kitchen and set the table for her mother.

It was a bit quiet, she didn't understand why. Where is everyone? Claire thought to herself. Usually she'd hear her mother cooking or her brother in his room with the radio cranked up so loud the windows shook. But she didn't hear any of that.

BANG.

Claire jumped. "What was that?" she said aloud to herself. She walked to where she thought the noise had come from, the window in the living room. She opened it and looked through.

A baseball sat in the grass a few feet from the side of her house. The neighbor boy ran and picked it up.

"Sorry," he said looking up at her, "I don't have very good aim."

"That's okay." Claire replied, with a small smile. She watched him run back to his yard before she closed the window and walked back to the kitchen.

She glanced at the clock. 12:05. She sighed and took the soup from the stove. She carefully poured it into a bowl and set it on the table.

She sat down and waited. Minutes later she heard the door open and saw her mother and fourteen year old brother Jeff enter the room. Jeff had a cast on his left arm.

"I'm so sorry Claire." Her mother said to her. "Jeff had a bit of an accident and I had to take him to the doctor. I thought we'd make it back before you came home. You were all right weren't you? Not worried or anything?"

Claire looked up at her with relief. "No. I was fine."

"I see you got lunch ready." She said to her, smiling. "Very good."

They sat down and began eating. During their meal Jeff explained how he had climbed up the tree in the backyard to get his cat down and slipped. He had fallen right on his left arm and broken it. Claire just laughed. He had done that so many times it wasn't at all surprising anymore.

After lunch Claire went up to her bedroom and took out her diary. She wrote what had happened to Jeff and smiled. She had gotten the diary for her eleventh birthday. It was a very pretty shade of blue and she had written _Claire's Diary_ across the top in red letters. When she had finished recording the day's events she locked it and put it under her bed. She turned to leave the room just as a brown owl soared through her window.

Claire gasped. The owl promptly dropped an envelope at her feet and flew back out. Claire bent down to pick up the letter. She saw her name on the front in emerald green letters along with her exact address. She turned it over. Sealing the envelope was what looked like a sticker of a shining letter H surrounded by four animals and colors: a lion in red, a snake in green, a bird in blue and a badger in yellow. She carefully lifted the sticker and took out the letter inside...

"Where was she found?" an old man's voice asked quietly.

"In the entrance hall, right by the door." a woman's voice replied.

"Was she conscious?"

"No."

"Who found her?"

"Hagrid."

"Did he see anyone else around?"

"No one."

"Does anyone else know she's here?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"I see," there was a long pause. "Who was the last to see her before she disappeared?"

"I believe it was Ron Weasley."

"And he didn't know what happened to her?"

"Not at all. He said they had a fight, she ran off, and that was the last he saw of her."

"Thank you. Can you go get her friends for me? I think it'll be good to have them here when she wakes up. And send an owl to her mother, she's been worried sick."

"Certainly, headmaster."

"Ow..." Claire muttered, rubbing the back of her head. It felt as if she had just been hit with a baseball bat. She tried to open her eyes but the light in the room was too bright. She waited a few seconds then sat up. She rubbed her eyes, opened them, and gasped.

She realized she was in a room with many beds in rows along the walls. There were five people sitting around the bed she was laying on. At the foot of the bed sat a very old looking man with bright blue eyes and long, white hair and beard. He had his hands folded under his chin and he looked at her through his half-moon glasses.

To the left of the man sat three teenagers, looking to be about seventeen or eighteen. There was a very dark haired boy with glasses and Claire could see a scar on his forehead. The boy next to him had bright, red hair and freckles and was looking at her with a look of mixed worry and relief. The next was a girl with long, straight brown hair and looked as if she was about to cry.

On the other side of the old man was a woman who looked quite angry about the crowd being there. She held a bottle of some odd looking liquid that Claire hoped she wasn't about to make her drink.

The old man at the end of the bed spoke quietly, startling Claire, "Are you all right?" he asked her calmly.

"Who... who're you?" Claire asked them all.

The woman muttered, "Worse than I thought," and hurried off through a door at the end of the room. The dark haired boy's eyes widened, the girl sobbed and tried to hold back her tears, and the red haired boy looked as if his mother had just died in front of him. But the old man sat calmly and said "Claire... do you know who you are?"

"Of course I know who I am. But I just want to know who all of _you_ are and where I am."

"We're your friends." The dark haired boy told her. "You don't recognize any of us?"

Claire shook her head. "Should I?"

"We've been your friends for six years," he replied calmly.

"Six years? I've never seen you in my life." She saw another tear slide down the brown haired girl's face.

The old man said, "Perhaps our names might remind her? Hm?"

The three around him nodded. The dark haired boy said, "My name is Harry." Claire stared blankly at him. "Harry Potter..." he continued.

"Uh huh..." Claire said, unconvinced.

"And I'm Hermione Granger," said the brown haired girl said with great difficulty.

"I'm still not understanding any of this." Claire told them, a little annoyed, she turned to the red haired boy, "And you are?" she said a bit rudely.

"Ron... Weasley..." he seemed to be having the most trouble with the whole situation.

"And I am the headmaster of this school, Albus Dumbledore." The old man told her.

"I'm in a school? But it's summer!" she told them.

"I'm afraid it's not." he said, shaking his head sadly. "Tell me, where do you last remember being?"

"In my bedroom."

"What were you doing?"

"I was opening a letter that an owl had dropped in my room."

"Do you remember what the letter said?"

"I didn't have a chance to read it. I had just been pulling it out when I found myself here."

"Claire... how old are you?"

"I turned eleven last week. What does that have to do with this?"

"Eleven?" Ron said completely shocked. "ELEVEN?"

Dumbledore put his hand up and Ron shut his mouth. "Claire, you're not eleven. You're seventeen."

Claire looked at him as if he were crazy. "Seventeen? No I'm not! Are you out of your mind? I'm eleven years old. I'm going into the sixth grade. I've never met any of you in my life and WHERE'S MY MOM?" she said bursting into tears.

"I understand this is very hard for you." Dumbledore told her calmly. "But you have to understand. How about you rest a bit and I'll explain this a little later," he told her as she cried.

The woman that had left earlier reentered the room. She gave Claire a glass of a new liquid and watched her fall asleep.

Dumbledore turned to Harry, Ron and Hermione who all looked completely horrified.

"This is my fault." Ron said quietly. "This is all my fault."

"It's not your fault in the least Mr. Weasley." Dumbledore told him, "Now I recommend that you all go relax. It's Saturday after all. We'll sort everything out later. I promise. We'll find out what happened. Who took her and why. Where's she's been. And we'll make sure she gets her memory back. Leave this all to me."

The three of them nodded and turned to leave. When they had left the room Dumbledore turned to the woman and said "Keep an eye on her. Notify me the second she awakens."

The woman nodded. "Of course." And Dumbledore left the room.

"I can't believe this. It's my fault. It's all my fault." Ron was saying as he, Hermione and Harry sat under a tree on the grounds.

"Don't be silly," Hermione said, "of course it's not your fault. You didn't take her, you didn't erase her memory. You didn't do anything to her."

"But it's my fault she was out there. If we hadn't fought she never would have run outside like that and gotten herself kidnapped in the first place."

"Ron," Harry said, "you had no idea that she would disappear. There's no way you could've known or prevented it. The important thing is that she's back now."

"Yes," Hermione agreed, "and Dumbledore said he'd sort everything out. She'll be fine."

"I suppose you're right." Ron said, staring out over the lake. "But I can't believe this is happening. She thinks she's _eleven._ Eleven! She doesn't remember the Hogwarts letter. She doesn't remember us. She doesn't remember her classes or anything from the past six years! How are we gonna explain everything to her? She's muggleborn, like you Hermione," he said turning to her, "she won't know _any_ of this. Quidditch, charms, potions, transfiguration, Hogsmeade, Zonko's, Honeydukes, us, magic... She won't even remember _magic_."

"Ron, calm down." Harry said, putting his hand on Ron's shoulder. "It'll be fine. Dumbledore can take care of this. If you can't trust Dumbledore to fix this then you'll go completely crazy."

"I'm already going completely crazy!" Ron yelled. "She doesn't even remember me. ME. Her own BOYFRIEND."

"You know," Hermione said, "memory charms don't just pick and choose certain memories. If she can't remember the past six years, she's not gonna remember you..."

Ron sighed and closed his eyes. "Isn't there anything we can do? Can't we help her remember anything?"

"I don't think so." Harry said sadly.

"Wait," Hermione said, her eyes lighting up. "Maybe there is something we can do!" She jumped to her feet and ran toward the castle.

"And she doesn't even tell us what it is." Ron muttered before climbing to his feet and running after her with Harry close behind.

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Any ideas for writer's block? (I think she is already writing chapter 8.) Read and Review. 


	2. Looking into the Past

Hey Peeps, just the usual, when people start reviewing, i'll reply before the story.

Disclaimer: Already said it, don't wanna repeat it.

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Chapter Two _

Looking Into the Past

Claire's eyes fluttered open. "That must've been a dream" she muttered to herself. She sat up and looked around the room. "No..." She realized she hadn't been dreaming. She was still in the room with the rows of beds. She let herself fall back onto the pillow.

Minutes later Dumbledore entered the room and sat at the edge of her bed. "Claire, have you calmed down?"

"I suppose."

"Good. Then please, just relax. I'm sure you'd like me to explain everything," he told her gently.

"Yes. Please." Claire said, a bit eagerly.

"Well, I can't tell you the details of your personal life, you'll have to consult your friends for that," she saw a slight smile flicker across his face for a moment, "but I will tell you what I know about your disappearance, and I'm going to try to find a way to help you remember everything you've learned in the past seven years."

Claire simply nodded and listened closely as Dumbledore began to explain.

Ron and Harry ran behind Hermione all the way to the Gryffindor common room. When they entered they watched as she automatically ran to the girl's dormitory. They collapsed onto chairs by the fire place and tried to catch their breaths.

"I wish she would explain before she runs off like that." Ron said, breathing heavily.

"I know what you mean," Harry said, nodding, "but at least she had an idea and I'm sure she'll tell us once she comes back."

When their breathing had returned to normal they turned and watched the door, waiting for Hermione to reappear.

Harry glanced at his watch, "What's taking her so long? It's been nearly ten minutes."

"Who knows? With Hermione it could be anything. Maybe she found a book and got distracted."

Hermione came into the room at that moment with a blue book in her hand. "I got it!" She said as she sat down next to them.

"A book..." Ron asked skeptically, "don't tell me you have a cure for amnesia in there."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Well, not exactly. Look at the cover."

The two boys looked at the front of the book, _Claire's Diary _was scrawled across the top.

"Where did you find this?" Ron asked, taking it from her and staring at the cover.

"I can't tell you that." Hermione told him.

"Why not?" asked Harry, "It's not like we can get into the girl's dormitory anyway. Remember a few years ago when Ron tired?" he started laughing.

"Oh ha ha." Ron said sarcastically, "How was I supposed to know it's turn into a slide?"

Hermione giggled. "That's not the point. The point is, we can have Claire read her own diary. She's had it since before she came to Hogwarts... in fact, I believe she once told me she got it for her eleventh birthday, so she'll know what it is when she sees it."

"Brilliant." Ron muttered, still staring at the bright red letters. He turned the diary over in his hands and ran his finger along the edge of the pages, "She must not've written much though. This book is so thin, if it's the same one from six years ago..." he looked up at Hermione who was smiling.

"Well, she actually writes quite a bit. She filled the last page near the end of our first year."

"Then how...?" Harry started.

"You see, I had been reading quite a bit of spell books and came across the _infini charm._" she paused.

"Go on..." Harry said.

"Well, the infini charm makes certain things never ending. I used it on her diary so that she'll never run out of pages. It may look as if the book holds only about one hundred pages but really she's filled more than six hundred or so."

Ron examined the book. "You're too smart for you own good Hermione," he told her with a faint smile on his face.

She blushed. "Thanks... I guess."

"So... what happened? Why can't I remember anything?" Claire asked Dumbledore.

"Well, how about we start with when we realized you were gone, shall we?" Dumbledore asked, a twinkle in his eye.

Claire nodded.

"Excellent... but I believe you'd understand it better if you _saw_ it, rather than _heard_ it."

"But... how...?" Claire said, confused.

"You forget, Claire, that there is magic. Now..." he looked around the room, "where did I put it? Ah, here it is." He picked up a bowl filled with something that looked gaseous yet liquid at the same time.

"What is that?" Claire asked, staring at the substance swirling.

"It's a pensive. It holds my thoughts very well. I've used it to show things to your friend Harry a couple times and it's worked wonderfully. Now, wait a moment," he seemed to be looking for something as he stared into the contents of the bowl.

He took out his wand, dipped it in, and pulled out a strand of the white substance and began waving it around in a small circle. "Very good." It began to form what looked like a window, she could see Dumbledore walking along a deserted corridor. She looked at him sitting in front of her. He smiled, "Just watch," he said, gesturing toward the image in front of her.

Claire looked back at the Dumbledore in the window. He walked along for a while, undisturbed. As he passed a window she could see that it was night and seemed to be nearing autumn, the leaves on the trees in the distance were just beginning to change color. She heard footsteps approaching. Very fast footsteps, as if the person was running. As the figure came closer she could see that it was Ron.

_"Professor..." he said, trying to catch his breath. _

_"Mr. Weasley, what are you doing here so late at night?" Dumbledore asked, "It's almost midnight." _

_"I don't know where she is. She's gone. She's gone." Ron told him frantically. _

_"Who?" _

_"Claire. She ran away, outside. She hasn't come back. I looked everywhere. I called for her. She hasn't come back." _

_"How long ago was this?" _

_"Hours. Six... maybe seven o clock. She would've come back by now. She's afraid of the dark... especially when she's alone." _

_"I see." Dumbledore said, looking worried, "get back to your common room. I'll get the other teachers and we'll look for her. She must be here somewhere on the grounds. We'll find her. I promise." _

_Ron nodded and ran off. _

The scene changed. They were no longer in the dark corridor but in a brightly lit, circular room. There were many paintings on the walls and dozens of small, silver items on tables throughout the room. Dumbledore was sitting at the desk, various others were standing around the room.

_"Have you found her?" Dumbledore asked the crowd. _

_"No." replied the woman standing in front of him. _

_"Have you notified her parents?" _

_"Yes," the woman said, "I sent the letter just ten minutes ago." _

_"I see. Very good." _

_"What do you think happened to her?" a man said from the corner. _

_"I'm not sure... there's no doubt that she's been kidnapped. I know her well enough to know she wouldn't run away alone, into the dark. But by whom, I do not know." Dumbledore replied. _

_"What do we do now?" the woman asked him. _

_"Wait. And try again tomorrow." he looked up at her, "Minerva, I need you to go talk to her friends. Tell them not to worry." _

_She nodded her head. _

_"The rest of you..." Dumbledore continued, looking from one person to the next as he spoke, "Go back to what you were doing." _

_The room slowly emptied as the teachers left. Dumbledore sighed, stood up, and disappeared through a door at the back of the room. _

The scene faded away and the window vanished. She looked up at Dumbledore. "So I was kidnapped."

"Yes." he replied, "We don't know where you were, what happened, or how you got back.

"How long have I been gone?"

"Almost three months. You were taken at the end of September and it is now nearing Christmas."

"Oh..." Claire said, thinking about everything she had just learned.

"Do you have any more questions?"

"No... I don't think so."

"Well, if that's so, then I think you should stay here until tomorrow at least, then you may go back to Gryffindor tower and your friends can help explain everything they know." He stood up and turned to leave, "I shall be in my office if you need me." He exited the room.

The next morning Hermione, Harry, and Ron met Claire in the hospital wing so they could show her the way to Gryffindor tower.

"C'mon. We have something for you back at the common room." Harry told her.

"You do? What is it?" Claire asked them.

"You'll see when you get there." he replied smiling.

As they walked along the corridors Claire asked her friends questions about themselves, trying to get to know them.

"Well I'm muggle born, like you." Hermione told her.

"Um... muggle born?" Claire asked, she couldn't remember what a muggle was.

"A muggle is a non-magical person. A muggle born is a witch or wizard you comes from a muggle family, like you and I." Hermione explained.

"Oh. I see. And I can do magic?"

"Yes," Harry answered her. "You're actually really good, better than Ron anyway." he and Hermione laughed.

"Hey..." Ron said, smiling, "Well, I guess that's true."

"But shouldn't you be better though?" Claire asked him, "Your whole family is magic, isn't it?"

"Oh, that means nothing." Ron told her, "Hermione's muggle born and she's the best in the class. And Neville is from a wizard family and we're surprised he hasn't blown up the school."

"Okay." Claire said, just as they came to the portrait of the fat lady.

"My dear," the Fat Lady said when she saw Claire, "You're back!"

"Erm... yes." Claire replied, a little surprised that a painting was talking to her.

"Hippogriff wings." Harry said casually. The portrait swung open and the four of them walked into the room.

"That's the password," Hermione told Claire, "you can't get in without it."

"Alright." she replied, nodding, "Now where's that surprise you mentioned earlier?"

Hermione smiled and retrieved a book that had been hidden under a chair. "Here." she said, handing it to Claire.

Claire looked at it and gasped. "My diary." She looked at the blue cover and the red letters. "I was writing in this just as the owl flew into my room." she said.

"Well, you've been writing in it ever since," Ron said, "I suppose it should tell you everything that's happened since year one." His face started to go slightly red. He had not yet told her that they were dating. He didn't see the point, if she didn't remember him, then the information would mean nothing to her.

"Wow." Claire said, smiling. Her smile faded as she ran her hand over the lock. "I don't suppose you have the key though, do you?"

"No. You did a very good job of hiding it." Hermione informed her, "but that really doesn't matter." She took the book from Claire and pulled out her wand. "_Alohamora_" The lock fell to the floor. She handed the book back to Claire, smiling. "Comes in handy."

"Nice." She said, she opened the book to the first page, it was what she had written the night of her eleventh birthday. It seemed to have been just a week ago, but Claire knew it was really over six years in the past. She flipped through the book. Hundreds of pages filled with thousands of words passed before her eyes. She watched as the handwriting became better and the entries became longer. She got to the last entry and stopped. She quickly closed the book.

"Thank you. I'm sure this will help." She smiled at her friends. "It may take awhile to read it but I'm sure I'll enjoy it."

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Will She regain her memory? Read and Review. 


	3. Diary Entries

Hey peeps, Mandi gets about one chapter done a week. Eight should be posted soon.

Disclaimer: Already said it, don't wanna repeat it.

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Chapter Three

August 26

You'll never guess what happened to me today! An owl flew into my room and dropped a letter. And you know what the letter said? I'M A WITCH! But not a bad witch like in movies and books and stuff, but a good witch. I'm gonna go to a magic school! It took a little bit to convince my mom to let me go but she finally said yes. I'm so excited! Jeff looked really jealous too. Haha. I get to learn magic and he doesn't. Yaaaay. Well, I'll write again soon!

Claire

August 28

We went to get my school stuff today. It was hard getting to the right place though. We finally found a guy that knew where to go. He's a wizard and he went to Hogwarts too! (That's the magic school). I can't believe it. He used magic to make a door in a brick wall. It was so cool. We finally got all my stuff. We went to the bank to exchange our money and there were goblins there. They looked kinda scary. Then we bought books, pens, potions ingredients, robes, and even a wand! I was waving it around when we got home and it made a bunch of sparks and I accidentally broke the tv. Mom took it away until I leave. I'm leaving on September 1! I can't wait!

Claire

September 2, Year One

I have so much to tell you! On the train I met a girl named Hermione, and we're friends now. She's really smart, she can already do some spells. And then, we had to get sorted into one of four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Me and Hermione are both in Gryffindor! We sleep in the same room too, along with two girls named Lavender and Parvati. And there are five boys in our grade too. Neville, Dean, Seamus, Ron, and HARRY POTTER. They told me that when Harry was a baby a really evil wizard came to his house and killed his parents, then tried to kill him but the curse bounced back and destroyed him and Harry was left with a lightning bolt shaped scar. It's really sad. I started classes today too! I have transfiguration where you turn stuff into other stuff, like bugs into buttons. And I have potions where you make potions (duh). And Herbology which is with a bunch of really cool plants, and charms where we learn spells, and History of Magic which is actually pretty boring even though it's taught by a ghost. The classes are so cool!

That's all. Bye!

Claire

Claire sat up very late reading that night. She read straight through her first two years. It wasn't very hard though, her handwriting had been huge and the entries were short compared to the end of the diary. She had also drawn a lot of pictures.

She realized that her life at Hogwarts was very interesting, and very dangerous.

Year One...

We all went to try to stop Snape from getting the sorcerer's stone. First there was Fluffy but we knew how to stop him, some music did the trick, then the big plant thing... I think Hermione said it was Devil's Snare and she knew how to get past it. Thank goodness she pays attention in class. After that was a room with flying keys but we found the right one for the door. There was a troll, thank goodness Snape had already knocked it out. The chess game was really weird, we had to replace pieces and they got all smashed up. Ron got hit so Harry could go forward. I stayed back with Ron while they went ahead. They told me that there were potions in the next room and Hermione used logic to figure it out, and Harry went on to the next room and saved the stone. It wasn't even Snape. It was Quirrel! And You-Know-Who! Harry almost died! He didn't though. I'm glad. I don't want my friend to get hurt.

Year Two...

...Something weird has been happening. Filch's cat got petrified...

...There have been more attacks, I'm getting worried, they're attacking all muggle-borns, I'm afraid I might be next...

...at the dueling club Harry talked to a snake! I can't believe it, Harry? Speaking to snakes?...

... they keep saying Harry's the heir of Slytherin. That CAN'T be true!...

...HERMIONE'S PETRIFIED! I can't believe it, one of my best friends! It's horrible. I cried so much when I found out!...

...we've figured it out! Actually Hermione did. It's a basilisk, in the pipes that's hurting everyone. The Chamber of Secrets is in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!...

...Ginny's been taken! Ron's really upset. We're going to go tell Lockhart what we know...

...He did it! Harry killed the basilisk and saved Ginny! Lockhart lost his memory, doesn't remember anything. Poor guy, I hope he'll be alright...

...Everyone's okay now! Hermione's back! I'm so happy. It's all over. Yay!...

The next morning during breakfast Claire asked her friends many questions about her first two years. They answered them all with smiles on their faces.

"I can't believe it! We actually did all that?" Claire said, shocked.

"Yup." Ron said, "It was mostly Harry though. You should see when you get into our fifth year! THAT was interesting, with the DA and Umbridge, and the Department of Mysteries... although..." he stopped, with an anxious look at Harry.

Harry knew what he was thinking, "It's alright Ron. I'm fine, really."

Claire looked from Ron to Harry, confused. "What...?"

"You'll see," Ron said quickly, a smile returning to his face, "if I told you now it'd ruin all the excitement of year three. You'd know the big secret and how everything turns out, that'd be no fun."

"Oh fine." Claire said, finishing off her toast.

"We'd better get to our classes." Hermione said, "Claire, are you supposed to come too?"

"No, I have to meet Dumbledore in his office."

"That's too bad." Ron said quietly.

Claire stopped in the bathroom on her way to Dumbledore's office. When she looked in the mirror she gasped, with everything else going on she hadn't even thought to see how she had changed in the past six years.

Instead of seeing the young, eleven year old face she knew, she saw a matured, teenage face. She was several inches taller now and had gained a couple pounds, her figure was obviously that of a seventeen year old girl. She still had the same greyish blue eyes and slightly pink cheeks that she had always known.

But what shocked her most was her hair. It had always been very long and light brown. Now she was looking at short hair, just brushing the tops of her shoulders. It was pitch black with red streaks all through it.

"When did I do this?" Claire whispered to herself as she ran her hand over one of the red streaks.

She decided she would ask her friends about it later and left the bathroom. She found her way to the entrance to Dumbledore's office and waited. He had said he would meet her here.

He walked toward her minutes later and smiled at her. "Follow me." he said and continued walking down the hall.

Claire followed him until they came to a vacant classroom. Dumbledore nodded toward a chair and Claire sat down. He sat in a chair across from her.

"Now, I've been researching the past few days, trying to find ways to bring your memory back. I've looked in spellbooks, potion books, even muggle medical books. I've found a few things that might help but nothing to bring back your memory fully. Some are very dangerous, but I don't think we'll need to use those."

"So what will you be doing?"

"Oh, I'll first try a spell that allows a person to remember things they have forgotten. It's usually used by someone with a rememberall to see what it's flashing for but we'll see if it works with a person who has had a memory charm placed on them. Are you ready?"

Claire nodded.

"Okay." Dumbledore said as he lifted his wand. He pointed it at Claire and said a few words that she didn't quite catch. A stream of bright blue light came forth and seemed to go right through her head. It then disappeared.

"Well?" Dumbledore asked.

"Nothing." Claire told him, a little disappointed.

"Not a problem, I didn't really expect it to work." he told her, smiling warmly. "It's alright though, we'll just have to try another one."

Claire entered the common room that evening to find her friends sitting in a corner, Hermione writing a paper while Harry and Ron played wizard chess. Claire sat down beside them.

"Well?" Hermione asked her, looking up. "How'd it go?"

"Nothing worked." Claire told them. "He tried a lot of spells and potions to try to get my memory back but none of it worked."

"That's too bad." Ron said. Claire noticed that he really did seem upset about this news but chose not to say anything.

"I guess you'll just have to go back to reading your diary then." Harry said as his queen took out one of Ron's rooks.

"I guess so." Claire said, "That's not so bad then, if I had gotten my memory back it would've ruined the whole book." she smiled.

"Yeah," Ron said, laughing, "and you'd have to go back to class and get a bunch of homework like the rest of us."

"Which you aren't even doing." Hermione pointed out.

"We have a week to do it." Ron replied, watching his knight pull Harry's queen to the side of the chess board.

"But you have three papers to write and a spell to practice. And I'm not going to help you this time." she told him, a little annoyed.

"You say that everytime but you end up helping us in the end." Ron told her.

Hermione sighed. "Fine. Whatever. Don't do your homework. See if I care."

Claire shook her head, "I hope there isn't a lot of that in my diary."

"There probably is," Harry told her, "they do that a lot."

She laughed and brushed a bit of hair from her face, that reminded her, "Guys..." she said, to get their attention.

"What's up?" Ron asked.

"When did I do this?" she pointed to her hair.

"Do what?" he replied, a little distracted by Harry's knight pushing his pawn to the edge of the board.

"When did I change my hair? It's always been long, and light brown."

"Oh that." Ron said, "Hermione, you're better at explaining things, you take this one."

Claire looked at him, confused. She looked to Hermione who set her pen down.

"You see," Hermione started, pausing to find the right words, "You went through a sort of... phase, last year. And that led to a fight... with Ron."

"I had a fight with Ron? Why?" Claire asked. She was shocked, she seemed to get along with him so well.

"We had quite a few fights last year actually." Ron told her, looking at his feet.

"But why?" Claire asked again, "and what does that have to do with my hair?"

"I'm sure you'll figure out exactly what the problem was in your diary," Hermione told her, "but as far as I know you just wanted a change. And, I dunno. I don't know any of the details. You'll have to see if it's in your diary."

"Oh... okay. Thanks anyway." Claire said, "but about the fighting with Ron, how often did we fight? And why?"

Before anyone else had a chance to answer Ron said quickly, "I don't want to get into that right now." and that seemed to settle it. Hermione went back to her homework and the boys went back to their chess game. Claire continued to sit there, staring out the window, wondering what else she would find out about her life in the coming days.

_She was running through the woods, desperate to get away. She could hear them gaining on her. She had to get back and warn everyone, if she didn't who knew what would happen? She didn't want to think about it. She needed to think about getting back. _

_The trees were getting thicker. She was nearing the heart of the forest. I'm halfway there, she thought. The yells behind her seemed to be getting closer. NO, she screamed in her head. They can't catch me! I've worked so hard to get away! _

_She turned to see how far ahead of them she was and gasped. A huge hand came through the trees and grabbed them. She stopped to catch her breath. She knew exactly whose hand it was. She was okay now. They were gone. But she still had to get back to warn the others as quickly as possible. _

_She made her way through the forest as fast as her legs allowed. Now that she was out of immediate danger she could feel exactly how much her legs really hurt. _

_The trees thinned. She could see the lights of the castle. She pushed open the heavy doors to find herself face to face with a tall figure. _

_"Welcome back Claire." he said menacingly, right before he hit her with the spell. _

Claire woke up, breathing as hard as if she really did just run through those woods.

"It was just a dream," she told herself quietly. "Just a dream..."

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	4. More Diary Entries

I have nothing to say.

Disclaimer: Don't feel like saying anything

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Chapter four

"I had a really odd dream last night, it was so vivid, I thought it was real." Claire told her friends over breakfast.

"Well, whaf was id abou'?" Ron asked through a mouthful of toast, Hermione glared at him.

"I was running through the woods as fast as I could, trying to get away from a group of people. In the dream I knew exactly who they were but I don't now," Claire told them, "then when I turned to see how close they were a giant hand came through the trees and grabbed them, I wasn't afraid because I knew whose hand it was too. Then I finally got out of the forest and ran up to the castle - this castle - and when I opened the door someone was standing there, they said 'Welcome back Claire' and hit me with a spell. That's when I woke up."

"Wow." Harry said, "Sounds a little like the dreams I used to have. Running through the darkness. Being chased. Getting hit with spells. Maybe it's because of what happened while you were gone or something, you're having nightmares because of the experience, even though you don't remember the experience..."

"That's stupid Harry" Ron said as he scooped some scrambled eggs onto his plate.

"Actually, what Harry's saying makes a lot of sense." Hermione said, "I've heard about that sort of thing happening in the muggle world. Someone goes through a traumatic experience, so traumatic that their brain forces them to forget it but they still have dreams about it. Although, in this case your brain didn't force you to forget, someone else did. But it's the same concept."

"Yeah," Claire agreed, "that does make sense."

"You should ask Dumbledore about it," Harry told her, "he'll probably know more about it."

"Okay, I'll do that." Claire said.

"Yes... I see..." Dumbledore said after Claire explained her dream and what her friends had said. They were sitting in the vacant classroom, Dumbledore had found some new spells to try to get her memory back.

"So," Claire said a little impatient, "what do you think? Is Hermione right?"

"It's a possibility. I believe that maybe our little experiments in trying to get your memory back may be working after all."

"What do you mean? I don't remember a thing."

"Not consciously... but unconsciously, I believe you might. I believe that the dream you had may have actually been a memory of the night you returned."

"You think so?" Claire said hopeful.

Dumbledore nodded, "Yes. And I think that all of our attempts at getting your memory back may have weakened the memory charm enough and let you remember, in the form of a dream."

"That's great." Claire said. "Do you think we could get my memory back fully?"

"I guess we'll just have to find out." He replied as he pulled out his wand.

Year Three

I heard that a man named Sirius Black is loose. He's said to have killed thirteen people, twelve muggles and a wizard named Peter Pettigrew. All they found of Peter was one of his fingers. I think that's really horrible. Why would someone do such a thing?

Anyway, Sirius was sent to the wizard prison, Azkaban, for life but escaped. No one's ever escaped before, it's a really horrible place with guards called Dementors. Those things give me the creeps. On the train we got stopped and a few of those things came on. Harry kinda fainted, Malfoy's still bugging him about that, that jerk.

They say Black is coming to get Harry. Although there's no way he can get him here, especially with Dumbledore around. There's just no way...

... Somehow Black got into the castle, he tried to get into our tower but when the fat lady wouldn't let him through without a password he slashed at her. We were all down at dinner at the time. I just can't believe it. How could he get in, and away? He got away! Maybe Hogwarts isn't as safe as I thought...

...we had a huge party last night because of the Quidditch match. It was awesome, then McGonagall had to ruin it and send us all to bed. A couple hours later we heard a yell, a few of us rushed down to the common room to see what was wrong. Black had broken into the boys dormitory trying to get Harry, he found Ron instead who yelled and scared him off. I don't get it though, if he's a murderer why didn't he just kill Ron and continue to Harry? I'm really glad he didn't though... I don't think I'd be able to stand losing Ron...

...That was the most shocking night of my life. Sirius Black is Harry's godfather, he didn't murder those people, Pettigrew did. And Pettigrew had been hiding out as Scabbers all along. Amazing. After all that Sirius was caught so Harry and Hermione used a time turner to go back and rescue him and Buckbeak. I wish I could've gone with them but I had to stay back with Ron, his leg was broken and I twisted my ankle really badly while running from Lupin when he turned into that werewolf. Thank goodness Sirius was there...

Year Four

THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT. It's so cool! And we have students from two other schools, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons staying here throughout the year. They had this Goblet of Fire choose the students who will compete, Viktor Krum from Durmstrang (I saw him at the Quidditch World Cup!), Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons (I heard she's part Veela), Cedric Diggory in Hufflepuff (he deserves it, Hufflepuff barely gets anything). But then it also sent out Harry's name! Not only is he too young but there's only supposed to be three champions, and DEFINITELY not two from the same school. I hope he'll be all right, he seemed really scared about it... and now Ron's mad at him. It's horrible. I can't stand to see them fight...

...Ron still won't speak to Harry. Hermione's been spending a lot of time with Harry though, I've been spending a lot of time with Ron. I've never really talked to Ron a whole lot, I've never been as good of friends as I have with Hermione, that's for sure. But I've really been getting to know him lately. We've been talking a lot and I think... I'm really starting to like him. He's really nice, when he's not being stubborn (like now, refusing to speak to Harry), and he is kinda funny. We've been having a great time together. He's really great...

...Today was the first task. I was so worried for Harry. They had to fight dragons. When I found out I almost fainted, I was so worried. He did really well though. I'm so glad he's all right. They had to retrieve a golden egg from the dragon, using only their wands. Harry used accio to summon his broom, then he did some really great flying and got it right from under the dragon's nose. Brilliant. Afterward we all went to see Harry, to make sure he was all right. Ron finally apologized, he said he had just been jealous and he was stupid for getting so angry. I'm so glad they're friends again. Yay...

...There's going to be a ball! I'm so excited, it's the Yule Ball, and everyone in fourth year and up gets to go. It's tomorrow already. Harry and Ron waited too long to get dates so Harry's going with Parvati and Ron's going with her sister Padma, in Ravenclaw. Hermione's going with Krum (but the guys don't know that yet). Ginny gets to go to! Neville invited her. Yay. And who am I going with? A boy from Beauxbatons invited me. He's really nice and kind of cute. I kinda wish Ron had asked me though...

...The ball was great. I had a wonderful time with Hermione, Viktor and Mathieu (my date). I asked Ron to dance once but he was too busy complaining about Hermione being a traitor, he didn't seem too happy about me going with a Beauxbatons student either. So I just ignored him and danced with a bunch of guys. It was so much fun. I danced with Mathieu of course but I also danced with a couple other Beauxbatons guys and a few from Durmstrang. And at one point Fred and George decided to make me dance with them. They convinced me to join them in the Chicken Dance. It was hilarious!...

...My goodness I haven't written in a while! Harry's gone through the second task already and he's doing the third in a few days! He passed through the second task fine, although I was kind of lonely in the stands, watching it. They had to rescue the thing most important to them from mermaids in the lake. And just my luck, the thing most important to Krum was Hermione and the thing most important to Harry was Ron. So I had no one to sit with. Malfoy seemed to find that very funny, he was laughing at me from a few rows behind. So I hit him with the first spell that came to mind... which just happened to be Diffindo. Diffindo splits an object in half, when it hit him his pants ripped right down the middle, I laughed so hard! So did everyone around me. Too bad Harry, Ron, and Hermione missed that, they would've loved it. Unfortunately Snape saw me do it and gave me detention... I spent five hours scrubbing old cauldrons in his office that night. Yuck...

...You-Know-Who is back! When Harry and Cedric touched the Triwizard Cup after the last task they were transported to a graveyard where Cedric got killed and You-Know-Who got revived. Luckily Harry got away alive. It's horrible though... You-Know-Who being back. Who knows what'll happen...

"You're really flying through that book, aren't you?" Harry asked Claire over breakfast a few days later.

"Well, it's so interesting, I just can't help it." Claire told them. They discussed her third and fourth years for a while, filling in the gaps Claire hadn't mentioned in her diary.

While Harry and Ron were busy eating and discussing Quidditch a short while later, Claire quietly asked Hermione a question. "In my diary, it's looking like I was started to like Ron, a lot. Did you know about that?"

"Oh, of course. I was the only one who knew about that!" Hermione replied, whispering.

"Does he know about that?" Claire asked, glancing at Ron.

"Yes... he knows that very well." Hermione told her, a smile forming on her face.

"And what has he said about it?"

"What has who said about what?" Ron asked, interrupting them.

"Claire just asking about you and her." Hermione said casually, filling him in. Claire turned red and Ron stiffened.

"What do you mean?" he asked slowly.

"She said that in her diary she was starting to get the impression that she had a bit of a crush on you and she wondered if you knew about that. I told her that you know very well about that..."

"You didn't tell her anything else did you?" he asked hurriedly, a little red in the face.

"No," Hermione replied, a little shocked at his reaction.

"Good." he said, "and don't." he stood and left.

Claire watched him leave and turned back to Hermione, "What...?"

Hermione sighed, "I guess he's not ready for you to know yet..."

"Know what?"

"I'm sure you'll find out eventually," Harry told her, "Whether you read it in your diary, get your memory back, or he tells you himself. I just think it's better that we don't tell you..."

Hermione nodded in agreement.

"Okay." Claire said, before she stood up and went to meet Dumbledore.

That night she had another dream...

_"I want you to stop this! I'm shocked you even did that! You didn't even ask me!" he yelled at her. _

_"It's MY hair! I can do what I want with it, I don't have to ask you! Besides, you said you liked it when I showed you!" she screamed right back. _

_"I didn't want to hurt your feelings!" _

_"What do you think you're doing now! You lied to me!" _

_"I didn't want to hurt you." he said again, backing off a little. _

_"Well it's a little too late for that!" she yelled at him, she turned and ran out the huge front doors and into the darkness outside. _

_"You'll be back!" she heard him call after her as she ran. _

_She didn't know where she was going, she just had to get away. She couldn't take it anymore. _

_She soon found herself coming to the edge of the forest, she began to run into them when something hit her and she fell. She tried to get up and realized her arms were tightly tied to her sides. She struggled to break free but couldn't. _

_"Perfect..." she heard a man say, just to her left. She glanced over at him and saw who it was... she started to scream, but before she could he had sent another spell at her, silencing her. She tried to scream, tried to break free, tried to get away, to get help. But it was no use. _

Claire woke up sweating. "Don't tell me that was a memory too..." she mumbled to herself, "if it was... I don't think I want to remember any more..."

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Just saying Read and Review! 


	5. Missing!

See last week for everything, including Disclaimers._

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_Chapter Five _

Missing

"I had another dream last night." Claire told Dumbledore in the empty classroom the next day.

"That doesn't surprise me, what was it about?" he asked her.

"I was fighting with someone, a boy, we were arguing about my hair. I couldn't really tell who the boy was though, it was dark." she paused, Dumbledore simply nodded, so she continued, "We just yelled at each other, he was upset that I didn't ask him before I changed my hair, I yelled at him for lying about it in the first place. Then I ran off, outside, I had just gotten to the forest when I was hit with a spell and fell to the ground. I couldn't get up, I was tied up or something. Someone said 'Perfect' and I glanced to see who it was and I was terrified. But before I could scream he had used a silencing spell. I tried really hard to scream and to break free, but I couldn't. Then I woke up."

"I see. Tell me, can you describe the man you saw?"

"I... I dunno. I can't remember. I'm sorry." Claire said, looking at the floor.

"Oh, no need to be sorry. I understand, I just wondered." he smiled.

"So, do you think it was another memory? Or just a dream?" Claire asked him, curiously.

"Oh, I know for a fact it was a memory, as was the last one."

Claire looked surprised, "But how do you know?"

"Well... the first one is really just a hunch, but I really do believe it was a memory. But this one I know because I remember the night you disappeared. Do you remember a couple weeks ago when I showed you a memory of mine in the hospital wing? The one where Ron told me you had disappeared?"

"Yes."

"Well, he had also told me that the reason you ran out was because you two had a fight. What he said fits your dream perfectly."

"Wow. But I don't think I want to have anymore of these dreams, they're horrible. Being chased, being captured, fights, screaming. It's not fun."

"I understand, but it's very important for you to remember, very important. So, how about we get on with it, shall we?"

"Yeah, I guess we should." she replied as Dumbledore took out his wand.

Year Five

Can you BELIEVE this? We have this horrible woman taking over the school, Professor Umbridge with all of her stupid educational decrees. It's so annoying. And then there's the fact that Voldemort's back, and we can't do anything about it. I feel so useless...

...Hermione got this great idea and Harry's agreed to it! We're going to start a sort of club to learn how to defend against the dark arts since that toad isn't do anything to teach us. We're going to meet with possible members in Hogsmeade this weekend...

...The DA is up and running! We've had a few meetings all ready and it's going great. I feel like I'm part of something now. It's great, not only are we learning to defend ourselves properly but we're defying Umbridge. Haha! We've decided to call ourselves the DA, as in Dumbledore's Army. It's wonderful, I've been having a great time. Amidst all this horror and anger and sadness, I'm doing something that feels good...

...We visited Sirius and the others over Christmas, it was fun. It took a bit of work to persuade my mom but she finally agreed to it. Mr. Weasley's been doing a lot better since his attack, I'm really glad. When it got closer to the end of break I noticed that Sirius was getting a bit less cheerful. I feel really sorry for him, being locked up in his old home. I wish he could get out more but that would be too dangerous...

...YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE IT. So much in such a short time! I can barely believe it myself. I've hardly had a chance to write, but now that I do I might as well tell it all. The DA's been revealed, Umbridge is gone, we went to the Department of Mysteries to save Sirius but he wasn't there, we were attacked by a bunch of death eaters, Sirius and Lupin and the others showed up to help us fight and... and... Sirius is dead. Everyone finally knows Voldemort's back but Sirius is dead. It's horrible. We're all very upset but I can't IMAGINE how Harry must feel. First his parents, now his godfather. He looked so sad when we got back. I hope he'll be all right. It's horrible.. it's really horrible... Sirius...

Claire could see tear drops on the page, she must've been crying when she wrote it. She picked up the diary and went down to the common room to talk to her friends as they did their homework. She found them sitting in the corner of the room so she sat down.

"Done reading all ready?" Hermione asked, glancing up from her Transfiguration essay. Claire noticed Ron had frozen up.

"For tonight, I just finished fifth year." she looked at Harry who smiled.

"I know what you're thinking, and I'm fine now, really."

"That's good." she smiled back at him.

"So, when're you going to read the rest?" Ron asked as casually as he could.

"Oh, I'll probably finish sometime tomorrow. Dumbledore has to do something tomorrow so I have the day off." Claire told him.

"Oh." Ron said simply and went back to his Charms homework.

"Well, I'm done for the night." Hermione announced, closing her books. "I'll finish tomorrow since it's Saturday. You going to bed Claire?" she asked as she stood up.

"I think so." replied Claire, standing up also.

"Night guys." Hermione said to Harry and Ron.

" G'night." said Harry while Ron waved.

Claire smiled at them before she turned and followed Hermione to the dormitory.

"I can't find it!" Claire said worried as she searched the room for her diary.  
"It must be here somewhere, you just had it last night." Hermione replied, replacing a pillow she had just looked under.

"Where did you last have it?" asked Lavender, who was helping them look.

Claire thought a moment, "The common room. I had brought it with me when I went to talk to Hermione, Harry and Ron."

"Then it must still be there." Lavender said.

Hermione and Claire went down to the common room and looked at where they had been sitting the previous night. It wasn't there.

Claire sat down, "Where could it be? It was right here! I need it!"

"Need what?" asked Harry who had just appeared in the doorway.

"Claire's lost her diary." Hermione informed him.

"That's horrible, where could it be?" he asked.

"I don't know, we've looked everywhere."

"I'm sure it'll turn up. By the way, have you seen Ron yet?"

"No, why?" Hermione asked, looking up from the chair she was searching.

"When I woke up he was already gone." he told them, "It's really weird, he usually waits for me."

"That is odd, maybe he was really hungry this morning?" Hermione suggested.

"Maybe." he said, considering this, "c'mon, let's see if you're right."

They arrived in the Great Hall a few moments later to find that Ron was there. They sat down across him and without him noticing, he seemed to be lost in thought. Harry cleared his throat loudly, startling Ron.

"A little jumpy today, aren't you?" Harry commented, "Where've you been?"

"Oh," Ron said, recovering, "you know, around. Why?"

"Just wondering."

"What's up with you today?" Hermione asked him, concerned, "You don't seem to be yourself."

"What do you mean?" Ron asked, his voice a bit higher than usual.

"Are you hiding something?" Harry said jokingly.

"No... no of course not." Ron saiod quickly, "Harry, you better eat quick, we have Quidditch practice this morning."

"Oh right, I forgot." Harry said as he grabbed a muffin from the center of the table. He and Ron stood up, said goodbye to the girls and walked toward the door.

"I really hope we find my diary soon." Claire said, watching them walk away.

"I'm sure we will. I'll help you look after I finish my homework." she told her smiling.

"Seriously Ron, what's wrong?" Harry asked as they walked towards the Quidditch feild.

"Nothing, really." he replied, staring straight ahead.

Something slipped out of Ron's bag and hit the ground with a soft thud. Harry saw it and picked it up, "Hey, you dropped this..."

Ron turned, his eyes wide, he grabbed it quickly and shoved it back in his bag, but not before Harry noticed the red letters scrawled on the front.

"Ron... is that...?"

"No." Ron said sharply.

"It is. I saw it. Why do you have Claire's diary?"

"I don't." Ron said, breaking into a run.

Harry ran after him and grabbed his arm, causing both of them to fall to the ground.

"Get off of me!" Ron yelled, trying to get to his feet as Harry held him down.

"Not until you tell me why you took her diary! We looked everywhere for it this morning!"

Ron stopped struggling and just sat on the ground. He was breathing hard and staring toward the castle.

"Ron..."

"I don't want her to find out okay?" he told Harry angrily.

"Find out what?" asked Harry, confused.

"You know... about me and her." he replied, shifting his gaze to the ground.

"But, why not?"

"Because..." he paused, looking for the right words, "Oh nevermind, you won't understand." He got to his feet and continued walking to the field.

Harry followed him. "C'mon, try me."

"No." he said, "Just... please don't tell her I have it. _Please_."

Harry stared at Ron, considering it. He didn't know what to think, but he trusted his friend so he agreed, "Fine. I won't tell her."

"Thanks."

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Will Claire fall in love with Ron again? Read and Review! 


	6. Warnings and Memories

Just Read and review!

Disclaimer: Don't own anything, except Claire and Plot. (Mandi, that is)

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_Chapter Six _

Warnings and Memories

The others were in class, Dumbledore was busy and Claire still hadn't found her diary, so she had no choice but to wander the halls. No one asked her why she wasn't in class, they all knew who she was and why she was there. Occasionally a passing student or teacher would smile or wave, but no one had time to chat.

"Hello." a voice Claire didn't recognize said as she sat alone, under a tree on the snow covered grounds. She looked up and saw a tall boy, her age, standing over her. He had cold gray eyes and sleek blonde hair.

"I'm sorry," Claire said to him, "I'm not sure that I know you. Perhaps I haven't recovered any memories of you yet?"

He sat down next to her. "I guess not. My name is Draco Malfoy, does that help you remember at all?"

Claire's eyes widened and she withdrew from him a bit. "In my diary I didn't seem to like you at all. My friends_ hate_ you."

"So what? Does that automatically mean you should hate me?"

"Well, I didn't get a good impression from my book, and I assume you aren't that friendly from what my friends have said."

"You know, you really shouldn't assume things. How far into that diary did you get anyway?" he asked her, with a faint smirk.

"I got through fifth year."

"Well, how do you know we hadn't become friends during sixth year then?"

"Did we?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

He laughed, "Perhaps."

She sighed, "You aren't giving me an answer, why aren't you in class anyway?"

"Free hour," he answered simply, "And I thought you looked lonely so I came to keep you company." He gave her a friendly smile.

"Well, alright." she said, still a little hesitant.

"You don't trust me, do you?" he asked, laughing.

"Why should I? I haven't found a reason too."

"Have you really found a reason not to?"

"Besides the fact that everyone I know hates you?"

"Pfft. Big deal. Just because I'm not liked doesn't mean I'm not honest."

Claire watched him intently for a moment. "I dunno..."

"Come on, just spend some time with me, and then decide." he smiled sweetly, "Please?"

Claire caved, "Fine. I guess it couldn't hurt."

Claire spent quite awhile talking to Draco and within just a few days they had seemed to become very good friends.

"_She what?_" Ron yelled when Harry told him he had seen Claire talking to Draco in the hall earlier that day.

"Calm down, I'm sure it's nothing serious." Harry said, not at all surprised at his friend's reaction.

"Harry, listen to yourself!" he said, " _'I'm sure it's nothing serious'_. IT'S DRACO MALFOY!"

Everyone in the common room turned to stare. Ron didn't seem to notice, he ran out through the portrait hole to go find Claire."

Harry shook his head and ran after him. He caught up with him seconds later and grabbed his shoulder. "Ron, you shouldn't do anything drastic, you still don't know what's going on."

"He MUST be up to something! Claire is a muggle born, you know how much Malfoy HATES muggleborns. You know how he's looked at her in the past, how he's treated her, what he's said to her. You cannot honestly believe that he's not up to something!"

"Okay, I agree with you that much, but you can't just go charging around ready to blow someone's head off! You have to calm down, think this through, perhaps you should talk to Claire about thi-" he froze and attempted to lead Ron away.

Ron turned to see what Harry was looking at and found Malfoy walking in their direction. "You..." he said in a threatening whisper. His eyes narrowed and he walked to him.

Malfoy stopped, he smirked, "Something wrong with your face Weasley? Doesn't look normal, although I'm surprised I can tell, it never does look all that great."

"Stay away from Claire." he said quietly. Harry had never seen Ron this angry before.

"Claire?" Malfoy said with an obviously fake look of surprise, "I haven't done anything to her."

"You must be up to something. There's no way you'd ever talk to her, you hate her, everyone knows it, you hate all muggleborns."

"Now now Weasley, you don't own her. She can do whatever she wants, if she wants to hang out with me, then she should be able to. And I really have no reason to stay away from her anyway, if you're looking at this as a 'She's my girlfriend, you can't talk to her' sort of situation then I don't think that would apply here anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, technically, I don't really think she's your girlfriend anymore. She certainly doesn't remember being your girlfriend, and it's obvious you haven't told her yet. So if she doesn't know about it, I don't think it counts." A smile crept across his face as he saw that Ron hadn't even thought of that.

"Just stay away from her Malfoy." Ron said, getting redder by the second.

"What're you going to do if I don't?"

"I... I'll..."

Malfoy simply laughed and walked back in the direction he had come. Ron stood there breathing heavily, seemingly holding in his anger with all his might.

Harry also stood there, confused and worried. _Why is he so angry? He's never been this angry before, and worse things have happened,_ he thought.

Harry and Ron sat in the common room the rest of the day, not saying a word. Harry just stared out the window at other students building snowmen, or having snowball fights.

Ron stared into the fire, thinking, all his anger as strong, possibly stronger, than it had been earlier that day.

_What on earth does she think she's doing? he thought. She knows how much we all hate him. She knows that she hated him. Maybe he's using Imperius on her... I wouldn't put it past him. But why is he doing it? What is he planning? He has to be planning something, he always is. He's evil, he's bloody evil. _

He continued to think about it, only vaguely aware that he hadn't seen Claire or Hermione all day.

"I'm sorry but I really don't think it's a good idea." Hermione told Claire in the library. Claire had come with her to help her find books to help with her homework.

"But he's really nice and it doesn't seem like he's up to something." Claire told her, they had been discussing Claire's friendship with Malfoy for quite awhile.

"I told you, he's always hated you because you're muggle born. He's a complete pureblood fanatic."

"Well, I guess we'll see." Claire said, ending the debate.

The next few weeks went by rather quickly and soon the Christmas season was upon them. Claire and Ron had argued about Malfoy one day but they seemed to have a reached a silent agreement not to talk about it anymore, although Ron was still extremely angry about the entire situation.

Before they knew it they were all on their way back to their homes for break. Harry and Ron were going to the Weasley home and Hermione and Claire would arrive there on Christmas Eve to celebrate with them.

"My mother never was a very Christmassy sort of person." Claire said as the Hogwarts Express pulled into Platform 9 3/4, "I'm sure she won't mind me joining you all for the holiday."

They exited the train and looked for their parents.

"Hey Claire!" a young man called to her. He looked about 20 years old and had light brown hair and eyes that looked exactly like Claire's.

"It's not..." Claire said, a little shocked.

Hermione smiled at her, "It is."

"Well come on." the man said, walking toward them, his arms wide open, "Can't I have a hug from my little sister?"

"Jeff?"

He laughed, "So you do recognize me?" he pulled her into a hug and she smiled.

"Last time I remember seeing you, you were fourteen and had a broken arm!" she told him.

He laughed again, "Yeah, well I'm twenty now and since then have had two broken fingers, a broken leg and a few teeth knocked out."

"Still the same as you were six years ago." Claire said laughing.

Her friends smiled. Ron said, "Well, I guess we'll be seeing you in a few days then."

"Yeah, bye guys." Claire said as they walked to find their families.

"Seeing them in a few days?" Jeff asked, a bit confused.

"Yeah, Mom never was a Christmas type person so I thought I'd go to the Weasley's for the holiday. Where is she anyway?"

"She couldn't make it. Too busy making the house perfect for you."

She smiled, "Good ol' Mom."

They had a small Christmas celebration at Claire's house the next day. Her mother was extremely happy to see her and insisted on showering her with presents and food. By the end of the day Claire was convinced she had gained ten pounds and wasn't sure where she would put all her gifts.

She organized everything into her bedroom, which had changed a bit since she was eleven. She put her new clothes into the wardrobe, her new books on the bookshelf, and the rest of her gifts onto shelves and into drawers around the room.

Claire's mom and brother were very happy with the gifts she had given them which included a set of self cleaning plates for her mother and a few miniature dragon figures for her brother who had always been interested in them, even before he knew they really existed.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, Claire busied herself with packing her trunk again, she was surprised at how fast everything had found it's way out in such a short time. She brought it downstairs and had a breakfast of toast and eggs with her family.

"When will they be coming?" her mom asked, she was a little reluctant to let her go to the Weasley's at first but in the end seemed to think it would be best, it may help her get her memory back.

"I'm not sure, I don't even know who's coming actually. All I know is they're using Floo powder."

"I'm kind of hoping Fred and George come." Jeff said with a grin, "The stuff they brought last time they were here..." he laughed.

"Fred and George?" Claire asked. She only knew what she read and heard about them.

"Oh yeah, they're great. They have that wizard joke shop of theirs. You made me come with you to buy supplies this year just so you could show me their shop." he smiled.

"Oh, I really wish I could remember everything... it's getting so annoying." Claire sighed.

The rest of the day they sat in the living room talking while they waited. Eventually the fireplace burst into green flames and Ron, Fred and George entered the room.

"Yes!" Jeff yelled, jumping up to talk with Fred and George.

Claire laughed, "You're acting so childish Jeff." she told him.

While Claire said good bye to her mom and helped Ron with her things, Jeff had fun looking at Fred and George's newest products. They let him keep a few free samples and just before they left Jeff turned into a giant canary.

Fred laughed along with everyone and said, "Wow, we invented those a few years ago already."

Claire said her last good byes and followed the boys to the fireplace. When they arrived at their home she was greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, Hermione, and Harry.

"So nice to see you again dear." Mrs. Weasley said, smiling.

"Yeah. Nice to see you too." Claire replied a little awkwardly, she didn't remember her very well.

"Here, I'll help you bring your stuff up to my room." Ginny said.

Hermione said she'd come too so the three girls went up the stairs to Ginny's large room and they set her trunk in the corner by one of the beds.

Claire was confused and asked, "Ginny, is this the house you've always lived in?" she remembered mention in her diary of the Weasley home and this house didn't seem to fit the description.

"Oh no, we bought this house just last year. It's much larger than our old one. Fred and George's shop has been a huge success and they insisted on buying a new house for the family. It was going to be a smaller one down the street but Harry insisted on contributing some money and getting a bigger one since he spends a lot of time with us anyway."

"It's a very nice house." Claire said.

"We love it here." Ginny smiled, "Although sometimes I do miss our old house, no matter how small it was."

The three of them went back downstairs and spent time with the others. By the time night came they were all very tired and decided to go to bed early.

"CHRISTMAS!" The girls awoke to the sound of Ron yelling in excitement in the next room. They heard Harry's pillow hit the wall a second later, he had obviously missed his target and they heard Ron making fun of him for it. Fred and George could be heard upstairs yelling at Ron to shut up.

Nevertheless they all got up and went downstairs to find Mrs. Weasley making a huge breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon, ham, and pancakes, among other things.

Mr. Weasley was sitting at the table with Percy, Charlie, and Bill, who had all arrived the previous night after the rest had gone to bed.

They smiled as Ron came in wide awake, followed by the others looking slightly annoyed and yawning.

"Excited Ron?" Bill asked him, laughing.

"Presents!" he replied.

"Every year it's the same thing," Percy said, obviously annoyed, "no matter how old he gets, on Christmas morning he acts like a child."

Claire laughed, "I don't see a problem with that, except for the fact he wakes us all up so early."

Ron smiled at her. Claire thought she saw a faint look of hope in his eyes but had no idea why.

They gathered around the huge dining table and had breakfast. It was a very noisy meal but Claire didn't mind. She took comfort in the fact that it all felt familiar, as if she had done this many times before. Her old memories did seem to be coming back, as she sat there thoughts of a young Ginny staring at Harry, Hermione and Percy having boring conversations, and huge debates about quidditch crept through her mind. She smiled.

After they were all very full Ron lead the way to the living room and automatically began passing gifts around. Claire and Ginny decided to help him and before long everyone had a pile of presents at their feet.

"HOORAY!" Ron yelled as he began ripping the paper off of a package in front of him. Everyone soon followed suit and opened theirs as well.

_He's so cute. Claire suddenly found herself thinking as she watched Ron's excitement. The thought surprised her a little, she knew she had liked Ron before but she had barely witnessed proof of it since she lost her memory. _

"This is so cool!" Harry said, holding up the quidditch poster Claire had bought him, "Thanks!"

Claire smiled, "You're welcome."

Soon they found themselves in a room filled with ripped wrapping paper. They all thanked each other for their gifts and somehow managed to put everything in their rooms. After taking care of her things Claire went back downstairs and found Ron sitting alone in the living room.

"Hi Ron." she said, "I don't think I got a present from you."

"No you didn't." he told her, "Thanks for all the candy though, that stuff'll last me quite awhile."

"You're welcome," she said smiling, "but why didn't I get anything from you?"

"Because, I wanted to give it to you myself." he told her, standing up, he looked extremely nervous, "Get your coat, I want you to come with me."

She did as he said and followed him out into the snow covered back yard. It was very big and quite beautiful. There was a big area next to the house that was obviously a garden during the warmer months and they had a few trees spread out throughout the yard. The icicles hanging from their branches shimmered in the sunlight.

They walked along until they came to a bench sitting under the biggest tree, far from the house. Ron pulled out his wand and melted the snow off of it. He sat down and motioned for Claire to join him.

They sat in silence for a while, listened to the occasional creak of the branches. Claire suddenly became very aware of her feelings for Ron. It seemed to all flood back to her as she sat quietly beside him. She remembered things from previous years that hadn't been written in her diary.

How she had been so hopeful that Ron would ask her to the Yule Ball and how disappointed she was when he hadn't. How he began to avoid her a bit during 5th year and she couldn't figure out why. How she longed to tell him how she felt but was too afraid to do it. It kept going like that for several minutes, Claire remembering everything that had happened between her and Ron while they sat in the silence of his backyard. Then it came to her final memory...

_"Claire, I have to tell you something." Harry told her. _

_"What is it? Is something wrong?" she asked. _

_"No. Ron wanted me to tell you something. He was just too afraid to do it himself..." _

_Claire's heartbeat quickened. Was this it? Was Harry about to tell her that Ron felt the same as she did? Was he about to tell her what she had hoped to hear for the past few years? _

_"He loves you Claire." _

_Yes! _

_"I told him he should tell you himself but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He was too afraid you'd reject him and he didn't want to be there for that. He told me to tell you and ask if you'd be his girlfriend, then get your answer and return and tell him what you said... so, what do you say?" _

_"Where is he?" she asked. _

_Harry looked surprised, "Uh... I think he's alone in our dormitory. Why?" _

_Claire didn't answer, she just ran to the stairs and climbed until she found the door that said "Gryffindor, 6th year, Boys". _

_She stopped to calm herself a moment. This is it, she told herself. She slowly opened the door and stepped inside. Ron was sitting alone, by the window, staring out onto the grounds. He seemed very nervous and obviously hadn't heard the door open. He kept moving around, checking his watch and looking back out the window. Claire smiled, his hair was a little messed up and his face was slightly red but she didn't care, she loved how he looked when he was nervous, so cute. _

_Claire quietly cleared her throat, Ron heard and turned to face her. He gasped and his face went a dark shade of red. She walked across the room and sat down next to him. _

_"I... uh..." Ron stammered. _

_Claire smiled and said softly, "Harry told me." _

_Ron just stared at her, then he coughed and said, "What did you tell him?" his voice was unusually high. _

_"I didn't tell him anything. I wanted to say yes to you myself." _

_Ron didn't seem to hear her at first. When he realized what she had told him, he smiled and hugged her... _

Claire turned to look at Ron. He seemed deep in thought. "Er... Ron, can I ask you something?"

He turned to look at her, "What it is?"

"I was just wondering... I know we fought a bit but, did we ever break up?"

Ron took a moment to understand exactly what she was saying. Then he frowned and said, "Who told you?"

"Who told me what?" Claire said, a little surprised at his reaction.

"Who told you that we were dating?"

"No one told me."

"Then how did you know? You only read up through fifth year in your diary, I didn't ask you out until sixth."

She laughed, "You didn't even ask me, you had Harry do it for you. But for some reason, sitting here with you triggered all of my memories of us, that's how I know, I remembered."

"You... what... really?"

"Yup."

"That's great! You're remembering things! Do you remember everything?"

"No. Just that bit. And you still haven't answered my question."

"Oh... well... no, we never broke up."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Claire asked him.

"I was afraid I guess. I mean... you didn't remember me, so I assumed you didn't feel the way you used to and if I told you what there was between us then you'd think you had to like me or something then I wouldn't know if it was, you know, real." he told her, looking a little embarrassed.

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter now, because I remember and I still feel the same as I did before." she smiled.

He smiled back, but only halfheartedly. He looked like he was concerned about something. Claire was about to ask but Ron spoke first, "I'm sorry."

Claire was confused, "For what?"

"I told you I was afraid, don't hate me for this, but I... I took your diary..." he suddenly became very interested in a hole in one of his gloves.

Claire was shocked, "You did? But why?"

As he spoke he avoiding looking at her, "Like I said, I was afraid. I figured there would be some mention of it all in your diary and you mentioned you had just finished reading fifth year, then when you went to bed you forgot it in the common room so I took it so you wouldn't find out about us. I'm really sorry." His face began turning red. "I decided I'd give it back, that's why I brought you out here. I have it with me here." He pulled a green package from his coat pocket and handed it to her.

She ripped the paper off to find the familiar red letters on the blue book. She looked back at Ron who was looking nervously at a squirrel scampering across the snow.

"Did you read it?" she asked.

"Of course not. I'd never..." he went back to examining the hole in his glove.

"Ron... I understand, it's okay."

He looked at her, "Are you sure? You can yell at me if you want... break up with me or something. I'm used to the yelling... we did that a lot."

"I'm not going to yell at you and I'm definitely not going to break up with you. I'm fine with it, really."

"Really?"

"Didn't I just say really?" she laughed.

Ron blushed and smiled at her. She noticed he began to lean closer to her. She moved slowly closer to him.

"Claire! Ron! Dinner! Where are you?" Mrs. Weasley called from the house.

The two stood up. "Brilliant timing..." Ron said sarcastically.

Claire smiled and took his hand in hers, "Come on, they're waiting."

They walked slowly back to the house, just enjoying each other's company. Ron smiling because he no longer had to be afraid and Claire smiling because one of the best aspects of her life before the incident had finally come back to her.

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	7. Snowball Fights and Back to School

Nothin' new here.

Disclaimer: Own nothing, nadda, zip, zilch. Mandi owns Claire and Plot, J.K.Rowling owns everyone else.

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_Chapter Seven_

Snowball Fights and Back to School

Claire and Ron entered the kitchen hand in hand. Ginny was the first to notice and grinned. "It's so nice to see you holding hands again."

Everyone turned to see what she was talking about and Claire and Ron smiled at them. "Does this mean you told her?" Harry asked Ron.

"Nope." he replied.

"Then why...?" Hermione said.

"I remembered." Claire told everyone.

Cheers rang out from all around the room. Fred and George jumped up to rearrange the seating. When they were finished Mr. Weasley was sitting at the head of the table and there were two empty chairs, side by side, at the other end.

The couple sat down and laughed at all the excitement.

"This is so great!" Mrs. Weasley said, beaming at them, she turned to Claire and said, "Even though you've only been here one day I really did miss seeing you two together like this."

Christmas dinner was so enjoyable for everyone that night because they were all so happy. Ginny and Hermione seemed extra giggly as they talked to each other. Fred and George were even more entertaining than usual, setting off fireworks halfway through the meal, Mrs. Weasley didn't even yell at them for it but laughed with everyone else. And throughout the entire meal everyone seemed to be smiling at Claire and Ron. They didn't mind at all, but smiled back as they ate.

After dinner everyone went out into the snow for a snowball fight. Mrs. Weasley sat down to watch but the rest split into two teams. At first Fred wanted to play boys against girls but Claire, Hermione and Ginny complained that it wasn't fair so they picked team captains and went from there.

"Now remember," George said before they started picking people, "If you get hit with a snowball, you're out and have to go sit by mum." he pointed to Mrs. Weasley, "Last team with a player standing wins. Got it?" Everyone nodded. "Good, Fred, you may pick the first person.

Fred nodded, "Thank you. And I pick... Dad!" Fred said, pointing to his father.

"Ah hah! I was picked first!" he said laughing as he went to stand by his son.

"Fine, I pick Bill!" George said.

"Ginny!"

"Hey, I wanted Ginny!" George protested.

Fred stuck out his tongue, "Should have thought of that earlier!"

"Fine... then I pick Claire!"

"How about we make this interesting..." Fred said, grinning mischievously, "I pick Ron!"

"Now that's not right!" Ron yelled, laughing as he stood by his brother's side. He turned to Claire, "You're going down!"

"I don't think so!" She replied, also laughing.

They continued picking people, Harry and Charlie joining George's team while Hermione went to Fred's.

"Well, that seems to be everyone!" George declared.

"What about me!" Percy yelled.

"What? Oh, Percy! Didn't see you there!" George said.

"Haha very funny." he replied, crossing his arms in front of him.

"You know I'm just joking," George told him, "You can be on Fred's team!"

"No, no. Be on George's team," Fred said, speaking as if it were a polite debate, "I insist."

"Ah, but you're team is currently smallest, you can take him." said George, talking as Fred had done.

Mrs. Weasley broke in, "He's right, Fred, take him."

Percy scowled and walked to Fred's team. Fred slapped him on the back, "Welcome aboard, glad to have you. You knew we were joking, right dear brother?"

Percy didn't reply but instead bent over, grabbed a handful of snow and pushed it right into Fred's face. "Of course." he said smiling.

Everyone laughed as Fred shook the snow off his face. He made a snowball, threw it into the air and yelled, "GAME ON!"

Instantly snowballs were flying in every direction. People were ducking and dodging in all over. Percy was hit first by a snowball from Charlie.

"Nice shot!" Harry called to him as he watched Percy wipe snow from the back of his head. Seconds later he was hit in the leg.

"Better pay better attention!" Hermione said as she bent down for more snow.

Left and right people were being hit until only three people remained.

Fred and Ron stood by a tree facing Claire who stood alone ten feet away.

"My is this an interesting turn of events!" Fred said, watching Claire closely, "My youngest brother and I... against his _girlfriend. _Only three remain..."

Claire slowly slipped her hand into her pocket. She pulled out a partially melted snowball and whipped it at Fred, hitting his left arm. "Make that _two,_" she said, wiping the snow off her gloved hands.

Fred laughed, "That was great," he walked to across to the group that had assembled by Mrs. Weasley.

Everyone watched quietly as Claire and Ron just stared at each other.

"Got another one in your other pocket Claire?" Ron asked jokingly.

"I'm not sure, you wanna find out?" she said, a smile forming on her almost blue lips.

Ron slowly bent his knees. His hand inched toward the snow below him.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Claire asked him. She didn't have another snowball, she just wanted to see if he'd fall for her threat.

Ron didn't reply. He continued to move very slowly, closer and closer to the ground.

Thump.

A snowball had hit her leg, he turned to see who had thrown it and was hit by another one, right in the chest. She knew that one had come from Ron.

"You lose," he said smiling at Claire.

"That wasn't fair!" Hermione yelled, "You distracted her!" she pointed at Fred.

"What do you care? Your team just won!" he shouted back.

"It was cheating!"

"Technically, so was Claire's snowball-in-the-pocket trick but no one called out that one." he said, "Which was _brilliant_ by the way." he added to Claire.

She smiled, "Thanks. And Hermione, I really don't mind. I knew that one hadn't come from Ron so I shouldn't have let it distract me."

"See?" Fred said to Hermione, "she doesn't mind. Besides, we're all a bit cold anyway. I vote we go inside for hot chocolate!"

"Here here!" chimed in the others.

Hermione admitted defeat and joined the rest as they made their way back to the kitchen.

They went inside, took off their soaked coats and gathered around the fire as Mrs. Weasley made hot chocolate.

"I think that was our best snowball fight yet." Bill said from the chair he was sitting in.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Who would've guessed it'd come down to Claire and Ron though?" said Charlie from the couch in the corner.

"I really did love that snowball-in-the-pocket trick Claire pulled," Fred said laughing, "Even if it did bring about my defeat."

"I put it there just in case." Claire told him smiling, "I was afraid it had melted by then though."

"It's good it didn't," George said, "It made the end of the game so interesting."

"Who wants hot chocolate?" Mrs.Weasley asked, bringing a tray of hot chocolate from the kitchen. She passed it around until everyone had a cup. "You guys played a great game." she told Claire and Ron, who were sitting together on the floor.

"Thanks Mrs. Weasley." Claire said.

"I played better though." Ron said laughing. "I won the game."

"Only because you cheated," she replied, smiling at him.

The room was quiet for a few minutes except for the soft sounds of people cooling their hot chocolate. When the last cup had been emptied and everyone sat around in a sleepy silence Mr. Weasley suggested they all go to bed.

His children instantly protested, "We're not even tired!" "It's barely midnight!" "We're adults, why can't we go to bed when we choose?"

"Hey!" Mr. Weasley shouted, "it was only a suggestion! You don't have to, I know you're all old enough to make up your own mind. Most of you don't even live here anymore. I just thought it'd be a good idea since you all look so tired."

They all laughed nervously. "Sorry Dad." Bill said, "Guess we got a little carried away."

"It's okay. You guys can all stay up however long you want, but I'm going to go to bed."

"I think I will too." Mrs. Weasley said, getting up from the chair she had been sitting in. "Try not to stay up too late, and please be quiet, we still want to be able to sleep."

"Okay, no problem." Fred said, waving them off.

They left the room and the others sat in silence for a few moments until they heard the bedroom door close a few minutes later.

"So..." Charlie said, breaking the silence, "What're we going to do?"

No one said anything.

"Well this is an exciting bunch." George said sarcastically.

Ginny yawned.

"Like I said..." he said, unenthusiastically.

After a few moments the others began talking again, everyone having their own conversations. Hermione was talking to Percy about the Ministry of Magic, Fred and George were having a discussion about their newest inventions and how to market them, Bill kept mentioning Fleur Delacour to Charlie who seemed to be getting thoroughly annoyed and Harry was talking to Ginny about the Hogwarts Quidditch Teams and their players.

"This has been a fun Christmas, hasn't it?" Ron asked Claire from their spot on the floor, they were leaning against the wall.

"Best one I can remember." Claire replied smiling.

Ron returned the smile and put his arm around her. They sat there listening to bits of the others' conversations. "I'm really glad you've remembered..." Ron said quietly a few moments later.

"I'm glad too." Claire told him.

"Kiss, kiss, kiss!" Fred and George began chanting. Ron and Claire hadn't realized that they had been watching them from the couch five feet away.

Claire picked up a pillow from the floor next to her and threw it at them, "Shut up you!" she said, laughing as the pillow hit George.

"C'mon," Fred said, jumping off the couch, "You know you wanna!"

"You're acting very childish, you know that?" Ron said, "Not at all like a mature adult should."

"Oh yeah?" Fred replied, "Well everyone here knows quite well that we are not mature adults, now are we?" he laughed as he looked at the nodding heads around the room.

"He's got a point you know." Ginny told Ron.

"How about we just quit this and go to sleep?" Hermione suggested, "It's almost 1:00am."

"I agree with her!" Ron said enthusiastically, topping it off with a great yawn.

Claire laughed, "Yeah, me too. I am a bit tired.

So everyone began to settle down to their choice of spots in the room. Charlie passed pillows around to everyone and it soon became quiet. Claire quickly fell asleep, listening to the deep breathing of her friends around her.

The next few days everyone had a great time hanging out and Claire was almost disappointed when Mrs. Weasley announced that they'd be returning to school the following day.

"Haha." Fred said laughing, "While you five head back to Hogwarts the rest of us get to... go... back to... work." he said, his enthusiasm dwindling as he spoke. "Mum. I wanna go back to school." he said turning to his mother and acting like a five year old.

Ron laughed. "Yeah, have fun at work Fred."

They spent their last day talking, joking and playing games. When the day ended no one was happy about the next morning.

But they soon went to bed and woke up to pack their bags and get on the train back to Hogwarts.

The Weasley family waved them off as they climbed aboard the Hogwarts express.

"So, did you all have fun?" Ron asked.

"Yes, that was a wonderful break." Hermione said.

"You know I always have a great time at your house." Harry said smiling at his friend.

"I had a great time." Claire said.

"Brilliant." said Ron as the train pulled out of the station.

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	8. Rememberance

Hey Peeps, why isn't anyone reviewing? Is it b/c no one is reading it? Oh the horrors!

Disclaimer: You know everything, Don't Steal!

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Lost Memories**

_Chapter 8 _

Remembrance

Claire finished putting her things away back in her dormitory. She and Hermione told Lavender and Parvati all about their winter break and they were thrilled to hear Claire and Ron were together again.

"You were always so cute together." Lavender said smiling.

"And he is one of the better guys in our year." Parvati told her.

Claire laughed, "I'm just glad that I've remembered something of my past. I hope the rest of it comes back soon."

Minutes later she was walking down a corridor alone, she wanted to say hi to Draco since she hadn't talked to him for a few weeks. As she turned a corner to see if he was near the Great Hall she heard him call her name behind her.

She turned around to come face to face with the tall, blonde boy. "Hello Draco." she said smiling, "I've been looking for you."

"Have you? Interesting." he said with a slight smirk, "How was your break?" He smiled.

"I enjoyed it very much. I've remembered a bit from before the incident."

Malfoy's smile flickered and a bit of fear flashed through his eyes. "Is that so?" he asked cautiously.

"Yes," Claire said, not noticing, "I remembered I had been dating Ron so now we're together again."

Malfoy looked relieved and said, "Well that's good news."

"Yes. I'm much happier now. How was your break?"

"Oh, it was okay. I just stayed around here, since my parents are both gone."

"Oh. I see." Claire said, not thinking to question him about his parents.

"Yeah. Well, I had better get going, I just wanted to stop by and say welcome back Claire." he told her. He gave her a quick wave and walked back in the direction he had come.

But Claire stood there as if glued to the spot on the floor. Malfoy's last words echoed in her mind "Welcome back Claire." She didn't understand, why did those words seem so important?

_She was running as quickly as she could, desperate to get away. Fully aware of how fast and hard her heart was beating against her chest. Her breath stung her throat as she gasped for air. But she couldn't stop running, she had to get back, she couldn't let them get her. _

_She could hear them gaining on her. But she had to get back to warn everyone. If she didn't who knew what would happen? _

_The trees were getting thicker and she knew she was nearing the heart of the forest. The yells behind her seemed to be getting closer, she ran faster. She couldn't let them catch her after she had worked so hard to get away! _

_She chanced a glance back to see how close they were and gasped as a huge hand came through the trees and grabbed her pursuers. She stopped to catch her breathe. She knew whose hand it was, it was Grawp, Hagrid's younger brother. She was safe, there was no way they could escape from Grawp now. She made a mental note to thank him later, but now she had to keep going, she had to warn Dumbledore and the others. _

_The trees began to thin and she could see the glowing lights of the castle windows. She ran out of the forest into the still night air and across the deserted grounds. She climbed up the front stairs and pushed open the huge front doors to find herself standing before a tall dark figure. _

_The light of the moon illuminated his blonde hair and cold gray eyes perfectly. Claire gasped as Draco Malfoy raised his wand and said menacingly, "Welcome back Claire... Obliviate!" _

_She fell as the memory charm hit her and everything went black. _

Claire stood, staring open mouthed at the retreating form of Draco Malfoy. "You...!" she screamed at him.

He turned around, confused. "Yes?"

"This is your fault!" she said. She forgot about her wand completely as she charged down the corridor and tackled Malfoy.

She held him to the floor as she hit every inch of him she could. She was only vaguely aware that her friends had suddenly come around the corner, that Hermione screamed and Ron and Harry tried to pull her away, that a few of her professors were yelling as they came down the hall. She didn't care, she wanted to hurt Malfoy as much as possible. He was the one that took her whole life at Hogwarts away from her. The reason she couldn't remember anything. The reason she was so miserable.

"_Stupefy!_" Claire heard Professor McGonagall yell and suddenly found herself unable to move. She stared at her left fist, an inch away from Malfoy's bruised and bleeding face. Surprisingly he was still conscious and whimpered.

Harry and Ron pulled Claire off of Draco and she regained use of her body. She attempted to lunge at Malfoy again but Ron kept a firm grip on her arm.

"_What_ is the _meaning_ of this!" McGonagall demanded as Snape gently lifted Malfoy from the floor.

Claire didn't answer. She just glared at Malfoy, breathing heavily.

"Claire..." Ron whispered to her.

"I said, what is going on here?" McGonagall asked sternly, looking as angry as Claire had ever seen her.

"It's his fault... he did this..." Claire said quietly, almost whispering, between sharp intakes of breathe, "I had to get back... had to tell Dumbledore... he was there... at the door... he stopped me... he took away my memory... it's all his FAULT!" she screamed the last word and again attempted to break free from Ron's hold and attack Malfoy once more, but failed.

"I don't understand." McGonagall said, watching Claire struggle.

"Let... me... GO!" Claire screamed. Tears erupted from her eyes and she let herself fall to the floor. She cried, letting out great sobs.

Ron sat down beside her and pulled her into a hug. "Claire..." he said as she cried into his shoulder.

Harry stared at her trying to understand what was going on. He enjoyed seeing Malfoy as injured as he was but longed to know what had caused it. He looked at Hermione to find her staring horrified at the scene before them and heard footsteps coming closer behind him and turned to see Dumbledore walking briskly toward them.

"What, exactly, has happened here?" he asked McGonagall as he looked from the bruised form of Malfoy to Claire who continued sobbing into Ron's shoulder.

"I don't know professor." McGonagall told him, "I heard a scream and yelling and arrived to find Potter and Weasley attempting to pull Claire off of Malfoy."

"I see..." he said, surveying the people in front of him, "Severus, take Malfoy to the hospital wing. McGonagall, take Mr. Potter and Miss Granger back to Gryffindor tower. And Mr. Weasley, help me bring Claire to my office."

They all nodded and did as they were told.

"Claire," Ron whispered to her again, "Claire, come on, we have to stand up. Please."

Claire's sobbing softened and she stood up. She tried to clear her tearstained face and failed. Ron put his arm around her and followed Dumbledore as she continued to cry.

When they arrived at his office, Dumbledore summoned two chairs and sat down behind his desk. Ron hugged Claire, silently wishing she would stop crying. He wanted her to be happy again. Just a few hours before they had been talking and laughing on the train, now she was crying uncontrollably.

After almost ten minutes Claire finally stopped crying and Ron let go of her. He put his hand on her shoulder, looked at her and said, "Are you okay now?"

Claire nodded. They sat down in the chairs and turned their attention to Dumbledore.

He sat there studying them for a few moments before he spoke to Ron, "I'll ask you first, what did you see?"

Ron cleared his throat. "I was walking with Harry and Hermione, trying to find Claire because she hadn't told us where she was going. We heard a lot of noise and turned a corner to find her sitting on Malfoy, punching him over and over. Hermione screamed and Harry and I tried to pull Claire off him but we couldn't. Then Professor McGonagall stunned her and we were able to pull her up. She tried to get at him again but I wouldn't let her. McGonagall asked what happened and Claire just kept mumbling about something. She tried to attack him again but when I held her back she just started crying so I tried to make her stop and you showed up." Ron told him, taking a deep breath.

"I see, thank you." Dumbledore said. He turned to Claire who was staring out the window with no expression on her face. "Claire." he said.

At first it didn't seem she had heard him. For a few moments she continued to stare out onto the sparkling white grounds, then she sighed and turned to face him. "I went to find Draco because we had become friends a few weeks ago and I wanted to say hi. I found him and we talked a bit. Then he said 'Welcome back Claire' and began to walk away but the words kept repeating in my head. I started to remember the night I came back. I had a dream about it and I told you but this time it was more detailed. I could feel my heart beating, I knew who it was that stopped the Death Eaters as I ran through the forest, I knew exactly what I had to do when I got back to the castle. Then I finally got to the front door, and I opened it. And Malfoy was standing there. In the dream I couldn't tell who it was but in the memory I could see him clearly. He grinned and said 'Welcome back Claire' and then he hit me with the memory charm and everything went dark... he was still walking away from me and I just snapped I guess. I yelled at him and attacked him. I wanted to hurt him as much as possible for what he did to me. It was all his fault. He's the reason I couldn't remember my friends, my family, school, magic, home, Ron, my life, anything. It was his fault and I wanted to make him pay." She fell silent again and looked at Ron. He stared back at her, apparently at a loss for words.

"Is that all you remember?" Dumbledore asked her.

"Yes." Claire replied quietly, "But there's something I had to tell you. I don't know what it was. It was extremely important, as if our lives depended on it. It was why I was so desperate to get away, not for my own life but for everyone's. And I just can't remember. Because of Malfoy..."

"It's okay." Dumbledore told her, "I realize you're having a very difficult time right now. We'll figure this all out. I promise."

Claire nodded.

"Right now I need to have a word with Mr. Malfoy. I shall be back, I'd appreciate it if you'd both wait here."

"Yes, Professor." Ron said as Dumbledore left the room.

Madame Pomfrey healed all of Draco's injuries with a wave of her wand but insisted he stay in bed anyway. She left the room and he was completely alone.

I've failed, he thought to himself. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. It's all gone wrong. She wasn't supposed to remember. Not yet. Especially not now. No...

The door opened and Dumbledore entered. Not him, Draco thought.

"Mr. Malfoy, I have just spoken with Claire."

"So? Are you going to give me the details? I already know. She remembered, and I'm sure you've figured it all out. She remembered that I was the one that used the spell to take away her memory. I was the back up in case the Death Eater's failed, which they did, those idiots. I was to make sure she couldn't tell you in time. They would have rather killed her but it wouldn't work like that so they imprisoned her. But she escaped and I had to complete the plan in the end because those idiots failed. And now I've failed. And I'm going to be punished, first by you, then by the Dark Lord himself. So, when are you sending me to Azkaban?" Malfoy said. No emotion was shown in his eyes. He wasn't afraid, he knew what was coming and he was ready for it.

"What were you trying to prevent?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

Malfoy was confused, "I just told you, I had to stop her from telling you."

"Telling me what?"

"You mean... she didn't remember?"

"All she remembered was escaping through the forest and losing her memory. Nothing more."

Malfoy smiled, perhaps he hadn't failed after all. She hadn't remembered what was most important. He laughed.

"What was she going to tell me?" Dumbledore asked sternly.

Malfoy continued laughing, even as Snape walked in with a small vial of clear potion.

"Your truth serum Professor." Snape said handing it to Dumbledore.

"I didn't want to have to use this but I believe we have no choice," he turned to Draco, "tell me now or I shall force you to drink this."

"You'll never get me to tell you anything." Malfoy said, getting up from the bed, "Not willingly, not by force, and certainly not with that." He quickly slapped the bottle from Dumbledore's hands and watched it fall to the floor. It shattered and the potion lay steaming on the floor.

He grabbed his wand from the table next to the bed and yelled, "Expelliarmus!" Both Dumbledore and Snape's wands flew to Draco's hand and he swiftly opened the window and threw them out.

He turned to them and used a binding hex to tie them both to the spot, he then shattered the window and used a shard of glass to cut open his arm. Soon the blood attracted a thestral from the forest and he jumped on it's back and flew out over the trees and out of sight.

Professor McGonagall happened to enter the room at that exact moment and gasped.

"Minerva," Dumbledore said calmly, "free us so we may retrieve our wands. Then send an owl to the ministry and inform them that Draco Malfoy has escaped."

Word of the events traveled quickly, not the true story but jumbled bits of truth and rumor. Many versions of what had happened were going around the castle. Everything from Claire beating Draco to within inches of death to Draco using an unforgivable curse on Dumbledore then turning into a bat and flying through the window.

As Claire walked through the halls with her friends it seemed that everyone was looking at her, and more than once she was approached by people wanting to here the story directly from her. She tried to avoid them but it was nearly impossible, because by this time Claire had remembered everything about her life, except for the happenings during her disappearance, therefore she was required to return to class.

As she sat in her History of Magic class multiple pieces of parchment landed on her desk, asking many different questions. Did you really come close to killing him? What exactly did he do to make you attack him? Were you there when Malfoy escaped? Did he really turn into a bat? Did he fight back? I heard he actually turned into a flying kangaroo and jumped all the way over the forest, is that true?

Claire was getting very frustrated with all the attention and yelled, "Would you all just STOP IT!"

Professor Binns paused his lecture on Wizard/ Vampire negotiations and looked up at her. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Yes! Something's wrong! EVERYTHING'S wrong! I cant stand this!" she yelled. She picked up her things and exited the room without looking back. She wasn't sure where she was going but she had to get away from her classmates. She rounded a corner and almost knocked Dumbledore on his feet.

"I'm sorry." She said, turning red.

"Quite all right," he replied, brushing off his robes, "I was just coming for you anyway. I think I've finally found the thing to get you last memories back. Follow me."

Claire followed him without question to his office. He closed the door and motioned for her to sit. She did so and waited for him to speak.

"I believe I have found what we've been looking for." he told her, "Of course, it is dangerous, but it's necessary. It's a very complex spell that I saw used once a long time ago. I remembered it last night and searched for it in the spell books in the library. After a few hours I found it and I am sure it will work. Are you ready?"

Claire nodded, "Yes." She was as ready as she ever. Finally, after all these months of waiting she was finally going to remember what had happened in the weeks she was gone. It was time.

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Will She regain her memories? Will Draco be caught? Read and Review! 


	9. In the Grasp of the Dark Lord

Not much to report, will update, need reviews.

Disclaimer: Quit asking me, ya know it already!

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Lost Memories**

_Chapter Nine_

In the Grasp of the Dark Lord

After waiting for so long this was it. Claire held her breath and closed her eyes as Dumbledore raised his wand. She let everything go and concentrated on the blackness of the inside of her eyelids. She didn't hear what Dumbledore said but was soon engulfed in a mass of glowing yellow light. She opened her eyes and watched as Dumbledore's office faded away and a new scene came into focus. She was about to relive the horror all over again...

"I didn't want to hurt you!" Ron said again, backing off a little. They had been fighting for a while about Claire's hair. She knew it was stupid but she couldn't help it, it just happened.

"Well, it's a little too late for that!" Claire yelled back, she turned and ran out the huge front doors and into the darkness outside.

"You'll be back!" she heard him call to her as she ran.

She soon found herself coming to the edge of the forest, she began to run into the trees when something hit her and she fell. She tried to get up and realized her arms were tightly bound to her sides. She struggled to break free but couldn't.

"Perfect..." she heard a man say, just to her left. She glanced over at him and saw a death eater grinning at her. She started to scream, but before she could he had sent another spell at her, silencing her. She tried to scream, tried to break free, tried to get away, to get help. But it was no use.

Within seconds others had joined them. She couldn't see any of their faces, they were all hidden by the black hoods of their cloaks.

One pulled an old shoe out of his pocket and the others grabbed it. The original death eater that had caught her took her hand and held it on to the shoe.

It must be a portkey, she thought. She was right, in a couple seconds she felt a jerk and they were all spinning very quickly toward a new location.

She hit the ground hard. No one helped her up, she just laid there.

The death eaters left her and walked through a door at the far end of the room. Once it closed she heard a click and knew she had been locked in.

Claire struggled a bit and finally got the ropes off of herself. She searched her pockets and found her wand. She reversed the silencing charm that had been placed on her and stood up and looked around.

The room was very large and dimly lit with torches on the walls. The ceiling was high and Claire could barley see a faint outline of designs carved into it. The pillars placed throughout the room were all at least five feet wide and were decorated with intricate designs of snakes.

"Obviously Voldemort's hideout..." Claire whispered, rolling her eyes.

She paced the room slowly and found that the only exit was the locked door though which the death eaters had left. She decided to just sit down and wait for something to happen.

Claire sat there for what seemed like hours, when finally the door opened again. A tall man entered and walked swiftly toward her. "How'd you get the ropes off?" he asked her.

"None of your business." she replied defiantly.

He grabbed her arm tightly and dragged her out of the room. He pulled her along many corridors and up several staircases, until finally they came to a small, well lit room. He shoved her in and locked the door behind himself as he followed.

Claire stood up and looked around the room. The walls were a sparkling white and there were no windows. It was very bright but she didn't see a source of light anywhere. Death eaters were standing around the room, there were at least ten of them, all wearing black cloaks and masks. In the center of the room, directly in front of her, stood the Dark Lord himself.

"Welcome Claire, to my castle. How nice of you to join us." his voice was very cold.

Claire didn't reply, she just stood and stared at him, waiting for him to speak again.

"I have big plans for you Claire, you are going to help me."

"I'd never help you." she said, without thinking.

The cloaked figures around the room laughed. Voldemort smirked, "Oh, but you will, whether you want to or not. You are going to help me kill your dear friend Harry Potter. Then you will help me to defeat Dumbledore, the Ministry, the Order, and finally the entire world."

"The world you say? A bit played out isn't it, the desire to take over the world?"

Voldemort frowned, "You think you're funny do you? Let's see how funny you think you are after this... _crucio!_ "

Claire fell to the ground in pain. It felt as if she were being stabbed with hundreds of white hot knives. She clutched her sides and lay on the floor, screaming, until he finally lifted the spell.

Voldemort laughed and was soon joined by the death eaters. Claire continued to lay on the floor, gasping, the pain lingering faintly.

"Not so funny anymore, are you?" he asked.

Claire ignored him.

"Take her away. Lock her up until I need her," he told a death eater near by.

Claire felt herself being lifted and carried through the halls. She heard a door open and was thrown onto the floor. The door closed again. Claire had no time to look around, she blacked out.

She awoke hours later to find a single slice of bread and a small glass of water laying by the door for her.

"Bread and water, how nice." she said sarcastically. Nevertheless she ate it within seconds and sat against the wall.

This room was about the size of a large closet. She had barely enough room to move around. The only light was from the cracks running up and down the walls.

"Must be day by now," she said, looking at the yellow light entering the room. She crawled over and peered out the largest crack she found. She could see the sun high in the sky, shining over the leafless trees beside the castle. A few death eaters were pacing outside. Claire sat back against the wall again and sighed.

I'm here all because of a stupid fight with Ron, she thought. Why can't we just get along? I really do care about him, and I know he cares about me ... so why do we always have to fight about the stupidest things?

She spent the next few days alone. She didn't get anymore food and was soon wishing she hadn't eaten the entire slice of bread on the first day. She began to eat the spiders she occasionally found crawling across the walls, laughing at the thought of Ron's face if he knew what she was eating. She passed the time by seeing how high she could count in an hour, singing her favorite songs over and over, and thinking about how she might escape.

After she had been alone for a week and was barely able to move from hunger, the door opened and Claire squinted at the sudden, bright light.

A figure grabbed her arm and dragged her back to the room she had met Voldemort in when she had arrived.

"So, are you ready to cooperate now?" he asked her coldly.

"Perhaps," she said weakly, "what's in it for me?"

"How does, food sound to you?"

"Oh no, I can't possibly eat anymore," Claire told him sarcastically, "the spiders were too much really, I'm stuffed." Her stomach growled.

"Obviously..." Voldemort said. "Maybe this will change your mind?" he snapped his fingers and a short man Claire recognized as Wormtail stumbled into the room. He held a platter piled with fresh fruit, a large loaf of bread, steaming vegetables, and delicious looking meats.

Claire's mouth watered, "Fine. What do you want from me?" she asked, staring hungrily at the food before her.

Voldemort smiled, "I knew you'd come around. What I want is very simple really, _information. _You tell me what I want to know, you take what you want to eat. Deal?"

"Whatever." Claire said.

"Wonderful ... now tell me, what are Dumbledore's plans."

"No idea."

Voldemort frowned. "You are lying to me. I can tell when people are lying to me. _What are Dumbledore's plans_?"

"I told you, I don't kn-"

_"Crucio!"_

Claire fell to the floor in pain, just as she had a week ago. It wasn't any easier to handle. When he lifted the curse she continued to twitch uncontrollably for several minutes.

"I seem to have no choice." he said to her as she slowly got to her feet, "Wormtail, bring me the Veritaserum."

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So will Claire tell the truth? Find out on next chapter! Read and Review! 


	10. Escape

Is anyone actually reading this besides me and the author herself? Please read and review, people!

Disclaimer: Check the last chapter!

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Lost Memories **

_Chapter Ten _

Escape

Wormtail exited the room and returned a second later with a small bottle of clear potion. Voldemort forced Claire to drink the liquid and waited for it to take effect.

Claire felt her self control slipping away. She was no longer able to speak freely.

"What are Dumbledore's plans?" Voldemort asked her for the third time.

"From where I am concerned he has been letting Harry train us to fight well, to defend against you and your death eaters."

"What is the Order doing?"

"I don't know."

"Do they know how to defeat me?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"The prophecy said that either you or Harry must die at the hands of the other."

"So either I will kill Potter or he will kill me?"

"Yes."

"Interesting," he sat in silence, thinking about it.

"Do they expect an attack?" he asked after a few moments.

"I don't know."

"Are they ready to defend against an attack?"

"Not yet."

"Perfect." Voldemort said smiling. He ordered them to take Claire back to her cell and went to plan his attack.

Over the next few weeks Voldemort spoke to her about Hogwarts and how best to attack it. And when he wasn't using her for his plans he kept her locked up without food for days at a time.

Claire stared at the crack in the wall of her closet sized room. She had been in there for three days, thinking and planning her escape.

She laughed to herself as she ran her fingers over her wand. Voldemort may be evil, she thought, be he is rather stupid. He didn't even think to take my wand from me. The fool.

A few days previous she had realized she knew a simple spell that could easily get her out. She also knew quite a few curses in case any of the death eater's stood in her way. She already knew they weren't allowed to kill her, the Dark Lord needed her to carry out his plans. But she wasn't going to let him.

At first she had thought of escaping right away, but then realized that wasn't the best idea. She should wait until Voldemort revealed his plot, then run and tell Dumbledore the information.

So here she was, sitting in her cell, thinking of the best way to get what she needed and make her escape. Soon, she thought to herself, I'll get out soon.

"What exactly are you going to do with me?" Claire asked Voldemort several days later.

The Dark Lord merely laughed, "I can't tell you that."

"Why not?" replied Claire, "I wouldn't be able to tell anyone, you have me very heavily guarded. Besides, wouldn't it be easier if I knew what I was going to be doing?"

"Well, I suppose." Voldemort said, thinking about it, "I'm going to use you for bait."

Claire raised her eyebrow skeptically, "Bait?"

"Yes. You are one of Potter's closet friends, of course he'll come to your rescue."

"I see." Claire said.

This was it. She had all the information she needed and she was about to make her escape. She steadied herself and slid her hand into her pocket for her wand.

The door behind her opened and Claire whipped around.

Wormtail stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the light in the hall. "You are to come with me. It is time."

Claire thought about attacking him and making a break for it, but no. It was not a good time. She would surely be recaptured within minutes. She nodded and followed Wormtail silently to the Dark Lord.

"Ah, there she is." Voldemort said as she entered the room. "But there is no time for talk, we must be going. But first, _Imperio!"_

Claire lost control of her body. She felt very light, and only vaguely aware of her surroundings. She had witnessed this feeling once before. Three years previous the impostor Moody had put this spell on each of them during a Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Harry had been the only one who had successfully released himself from the curse. She tried to think back and remember how he had done it.

The group traveled for hours by all means of transportation. They flew, apparated, used floo powder, and walked until finally they arrived at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, opposite the side of Hogwarts Castle.

"I must go take care of a few last minute details," Voldemort informed his death eaters, "you start toward the castle, I will meet you in an hour." He then disapparated without another word.

The Imperious spell was suddenly lifted with the disappearance of it's caster. But before Claire could decide what to do another was put on her by one of the death eaters.

"Thought you'd get away did you?" a cold voice said mockingly from behind his mask.

The group headed into the darkness of the forest. Along the way the death eater had Claire do ridiculous things like climb the trees, act like a monkey and sing the Canadian National Anthem.

"Stop that!" another man told the death eater.

"I just thought I'd have a little fun," he replied.

"You're acting like a fool, besides, we're on a mission."

"Fine."

Must... get... escape... the curse... Claire thought desperately as she tried to throw off the spell. Finally she found everything around her beginning to clear. Within moments she had released herself completely.

Before the death eaters knew what had happened she drove her hand into her pocket, pulled out her wand and stunned half the group.

"Get her!" a woman yelled.

The remaining death eaters pulled out their wands but Claire yelled, "Expelliarmus!" The wands flew to her hand and she swiftly threw them to the ground and brought her foot down on them, grinning as she heard each one snap in half.

"Why you-!" the woman yelled. Claire turned and ran and heard five people right behind her. She dodged around trees and jumped over holes, occasionally sending a random spell behind her.

At one point she saw a stream of what seemed to be purple light shoot past her. What? Claire thought, none of them have theirs wands, unless one of the men I stunned is sending a warning of some kind, but who would they be warning? She decided to figure that out later.

She was getting tired. Her legs were screaming in pain. Her throat burned with every breath that went through it.

Claire knew they were gaining on her, the yells were getting louder. She chanced another glance back and gasped. A giant hand came through the trees at that very moment and grabbed hold of the death eaters.

She stopped to catch her breath, making a mental note to thank Grawp later. She knew she was safe now but had to get to Dumbledore to warn him of the attack. She may have escaped but that didn't mean Voldemort's plans were ruined. She knew that if he didn't attack tonight he planned to attack on the first of February, she didn't know why.

She continued running and soon exited the forest onto the dark school grounds. She saw a few lights still on in the windows of the castle and hurried across the grass to the front doors. Wait, she thought, remembering the purple light, what if they had been informing a slytherin that I was coming? I'm sure they must be in contact with Voldemort.

She ignored her suspicion and climbed the stone steps to the doors. She threw them open to find herself face to face with none other than Draco Malfoy.

"Welcome back Claire," he said with a smirk on his face.

"Of course." Claire whispered to herself. She was right, they were informing Malfoy so he could stop her.

Before she could do anything he said, _"Obliviate!"_ and she blacked out.

Claire opened her eyes and looked at Dumbledore.

"Well?" he asked, "Did you remember?"

"Yes," she said, and explained the entire ordeal to him.

When she finished he nodded and looked to a calendar hanging on his wall. He turned back to her gravely, "When did you say he would attack?"

"February first." she replied. Her eyes widened, "It's not-?"

"Tomorrow I'm afraid," he told her.

Claire sat openmouthed in shock. "What... what are we going to do? We don't have enough time to plan a defense or to evacuate or anything!"

"True. All we can do, is fight."

"What's going on?" Neville asked Harry, Ron and Hermione as they walked toward the Great Hall. All the students were told to stop their classes and go there for a meeting.

"I have no idea." Harry replied.

"It must be important." Hermione said, "how often do they call us out of class for an emergency meeting?"

"Never have as long as we've been here." Ron said. They walked through the doors and sat at their table.

The entire room was filled with confused chatter. Harry glanced around and saw the Hufflepuffs looking frightened and the Ravenclaws looking for answers. He noticed that the Slytherins, however, seemed very excited.

"Look!" Hermione said and pointed to the top table.

Ron and Harry turned to see a huge assortment of people standing against the back wall. As Harry looked down the line he saw Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody, Kingsley, Tonks, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, their adult children and about twenty other aurors, all looking very grave as they stood behind the teachers.

Lupin caught Harry's eye and nodded in his direction. Harry gave him a questioning look but Lupin merely shook his head and turned to speak with Tonks.

"What's Claire doing up there?" Ron asked.

Claire was standing near the edge of the group looking very nervous. Fred and George kept giving her reassuring smiles but Ron could see the fear in all their eyes.

The entire school gathered in the Great Hall and Dumbledore informed Claire that she would be addressing them.

"What!" she asked shocked, "Why? I can't... I won't..."

"It will be better understood coming from their peer. Besides," Dumbledore told her, "I'll be meeting with the Slytherins," a look Claire couldn't quite place flickered through the old man's eyes.

Claire sighed, "Fine. If I have to, but what do I say to them?"

"Just tell them what is coming. Explain that your memory came back, tell them your story, reassure them that we will fight and we will succeed. Then Lupin will take over and go over the plans."

"Okay."

At that point Claire looked around at her frightened classmates. She saw many familiar faces, her fellow Gryffindors, those who were in the DA with her, various others she had come to know a bit throughout her school career.

_I'm not ready for this, she thought. I'm just not. I can't do this. But it doesn't matter if I'm ready. Because in the end, it will all come down to... she looked at Harry, him._

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Okay, so what is Claire gonna say? Read and Review! 


	11. Plans

Hello Peeps, it's been awhile.

Thanks to whoever. I am glad to hear that!

Disclaimer : (reads off of script) I own nothing J.K.Rowling owns Harry Potter, Mandi owns Claire and plot. (Puts down script and picks up stick) OK Lawyers, one step closer and I hit you!_

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Chapter 11_

Plans

Dumbledore stepped up to address the anxious crowd. The hall fell silent and looked up at the old man.

"I am afraid it is time we fight," he told them solemnly, "Voldemort will be attacking tomorrow."

Many people gasped and everyone began talking again.

"Tomorrow?"

"No!"

"Impossible, how would he know?"

"What are we going to do?"

"I'm scared!"

Dumbledore cleared his throat and attention was once again on him. "Claire is here to speak to you first, then my friend Remus Lupin will explain the plans. But first, will the members of the Slytherin house please follow me into this back room please?" he motioned to a door behind him.

Everyone, including the Slytherins, looked confused. They obeyed however and filed into the room. Dumbeldore closed the door behind him and left Claire to tell her story.

"What's the meaning of this?" Blaise Zabini asked Dumbledore once he had closed the door.

"I am afraid I cannot trust any of you," he replied. He raised his wand and used the disarming spell. The wands of all the students flew into an open trunk beside him.

"You can't do that!" Pansy Parkinson protested.

Dumbledore ignored her and locked the trunk with a series of complicated spells. He then lifted it to a shelf high on the wall, out of reach of even the tallest seventh year.

As he turned around, Crabbe and Goyle stood inches from him. "You can't do this," Goyle breathed into his face.

"I'm believe I can. It is safer for everyone if you are all kept out of the way."

"What makes you think you can't trust us?" Blaise challenged.

"Besides the fact that your friend Draco Malfoy recently attacked myself and Professor Snape in order to fly out the window on the back of a thestral?"

Many of the students turned to whisper to eachother.

"Maybe he was the only bad one," Blaise said, not giving up.

"May I see your arm?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

Blaise held out his right arm.

"Your other arm please."

Blaise stared at him and didn't move.

"As I thought. I know what many of you did over your summer break. You were trained. You were taught. You were _tattooed. _Therefore you shall remain here, without your wands. Good night."

He turned and exited the room back into the Great Hall. He used another series of spells to lock the door and sat to listen as Lupin explained the plan.

Claire stepped forward, extremely aware of how her hair fell in her face, where her hands were, and the fact that she slouched slightly.

She took a deep breath. "I can do this," she whispered to herself.

She used a spell to amplify her voice and looked up to speak to her peers.

"Well, I've been told to tell you all I know about the attack," she paused nervously, looking around at all the eyes staring at her. She continued, "Earlier today Dumbledore used a spell that allowed me to remember everything I had forgotten. I relived the time I spent as a captive of Voldemort. I was tortured and starved. When I arrived I was locked in a small dark room and was left alone for days at a time without food or water. Time passed very slowly, but I used that time to plan my escape. Voldemort was foolish enough to forget to take my wand away, that was a key point to my plan. But before I could put my plan into action, Voldemort started his own. He put me under the Imperius curse and we traveled for hours, by foot, floo powder, brooms, and magic, until we arrived at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Voldemort announced that he had to be somewhere else at the moment and that we should start without him. The Imperius curse was again placed on me, this time by a death eater. He had some fun with me, made me do ridiculus things, until another yelled at him. Shortly after I managed to throw off the spell. I took out my wand and stunned half the group. I then used the disarming spell and collected their wands, threw them on the ground and stomped on them. They, of course, chased me. At one point I saw some purple light fly past me, I later realized what it was. Finally the death eaters were stopped by a... um... _friend._" Claire glanced at Hagrid and he nodded, "I continued quickly to warn Dumbledore. As I opened the doors I knew for sure what the purple light had been, because there before me stood Draco Malfoy. The light had been a sign to warn him, sent by a death eater I had stunned. Needless to say, Malfoy erased my memory on the spot. You all know everything that has happened since, and you all must realize that we have to fight... we just have to," she ended plainly.

The room was silent as the students watched her. Claire couldn't tell if they fully believed her or not. Their looks seemed to be of mixed skepticism and awe.

Someone tapped her shoulder and Claire turned around to find herself face to face with Remus Lupin. He smiled comfortingly at her. She moved aside and he took the stage.

"I am amazed at Claire's talent," he said. "She was very brave, even in the face of the most evil wizard there is," he turned to her. "Good job. I'm very proud of you," he started clapping and soon the entire room was filled with applause.

Claire turned slightly red, smiled, then went to stand between Fred and George who both patted her on the back. She turned and saw Dumbledore slip out of the back room, alone, and sit down.

"Now," Lupin continued, "we have to go over the plans. We believe Voldemort will be bringing with him about twenty death eaters, a large host of dementors, a few giants, and perhaps some others. Who here can successfully use the patronus charm?"

Majority of the seventh years and a few younger students raised their hands.

"You will come with me then. We will fight off the dementors," he told them. "Minus those who've already raised their hands, who can use a strong stupefy curse?" Some students raised their hands. Lupin addressed them, "You will be assigned to Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick to attempt to stun the giants. The rest of you will be split into groups and assigned to other teachers to defend against death eaters, except for a select few who have been chosen to go with Dumbledore. First and Second years however are to return to their dormitories, accompanied by those who aren't able or aren't willing to fight. Spells will be placed on the entrances to protect against unwelcome intrusion. Those who apply, please leave now."

All of the youngest students left, followed by about ten others who looked very frightened. The heads of houses left with them to perform the protection spells.

The other students reported to those they had been assigned to. Dumbledore wove his way through the crowd, picking out those he needed.

At last he came to Claire, "Come with me," he said quietly. She followed him to the group and was instantly pulled into a tight embrace by Ron.

She was taken aback for a second but then smiled weakly and returned the hug. "It'll be okay," he whispered in her ear.

All she could do was nod.

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Next chapter is coming up! Just R & R! 


	12. The Battle Begins

Hey all, not much.

Disclaimer : Please read other chapters. I don't feel like writing it.

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Chapter Twelve_

The Battle Begins

Claire looked at the others in the group. They consisted of Harry, Hermione, herself, Ron, Ginny, Luna, Neville, a few she remembered from the DA, and a couple students she didn't know. Soon after, the rest of the Weasley children joined them.

"I have chosen all of you," Dumbledore told them, "because I believe you to be the most capable of defeating Voldemort's army, whether you agree or not." Claire saw him wink at Neville. "You all are the most important to this school, this battle, this war. It will all come down to the skills and knowledge of the very people that stand around you now. You must fight your hardest and help eachother. I'm afraid I cannot promise that all of you will remain alive, but you do have the best chance. I trust you."

The group listened to him silently, their faces set. He didn't need to tell them, they knew already. It was up to them. In the end it was them who would be depended upon. They would be the last to fight ... and they had to succeed.

Everyone slept in the Great Hall that night. They awoke early the next morning to go over the plans one last time and do a bit of last minute training. During the day a few others backed out and retreated to their dorms, but no one spoke a word of it.

As evening slowly came and left and night fell the room became quiet and tense. No one moved and no one spoke. The silence was uneasy.

As the clock chimed at nine o'clock the doors flew open and they stared into the faces of many men, led by Draco Malfoy.

He smirked and said, "I'm back."

The room exploded in sound. Spells were instantly flying in every direction, people were shouting and dodging curses. Everywhere she turned, Claire could see people being hit, stopping in mid-air, screaming in pain, gasping as large boils sprouted on their faces, among other things.

"_Crucio!"_ Claire heard it and had no time to react before she was on the floor, writhing in pain. Her screams were drowned out by the noise around her but her friends saw what happened and quickly acted.

"_Stupefy!"_ came the shouts of five people. The spells flew in multiple directions, but one hit it's target. Draco Malfoy fell to the ground and the Cruciatus curse was lifted.

Claire tentativley rose to her feet, gasping for breath. Ron helped support her and she stood up. "Thanks," she said.

Claire saw Ginny being backed into a corner by a death eater. Without thinking Claire ran toward them and shot a spell at the cloaked figure. The man flew backwards and his hood fell to reveal his face.

"Hey Claire!" Colin Creevey called from ten feet away, "you got Lucius Malfoy! Nice!"

Claire smiled and went to continue the fight.

" Where is he?" Harry thought desperately, searching for Voldemort, "The sooner I find him, the quicker I can attack and end this."

He fought off death eaters as he wove his way through the crowd. Suddenly there was a loud crash and Harry was startled to find a giant had smashed a hole in the wall from the outside and was now entering, closely follwed by two more giants and a large group of dementors.

Those near the area screamed and scrambled out of the way, sending spells behind them for protection.

The groups assigned to fight off the creatures quickly came together and began to defend against them. A giant fell, having been hit with more than twenty spells at once. Someone screamed and Harry realized a student had just fallen victim to the dementor's kiss. It was a fourth year Ravenclaw he didn't know but he felt a sadness creep into his heart as he watch the boy's friends scream and cry.

He continued to search desperately for the man behind all of this.

Screaming. Cursing. Yelling. Crying. It all blended together until Claire no longer heard any of it anymore. She felt nothing as she sent spells at the death eaters. Watching them fall she wasn't concerned at all.

She saw the bodies of many of the others lying about and was careful not to step on them. She felt they deserved a proper burial when this was over.

Another loud noise shook the room and Claire gasped as she saw the Slytherins climbing through a gaping hole in the wall near the locked door. Someone had ordered a giant to free them and they somehow had gotten their wands back.

She looked around and saw Malfoy watching her, smirking. She automatically knew this was his doing. She ignored him and continued to fight.

"There's too many of them!" Ron yelled to his eldest brother as they attempted to fight off multiple dementors.

"Just think happy thoughts!" Bill yelled back as he sent another patronus at them.

"Oh yeah," he replied sarcastically, "it's so simple."

Moments later a glowing white stag erupted through the advancing creatures followed by a few others, quickly driving them away.

Ron looked past to see Harry, Hermione, Claire, Ginny and Neville smiling reassuringly at him.

"Thanks!" Bill and Ron yelled in unison.

"No!" Fred yelled as he watched his twin fall. Bellatrix Lestrange had snuck up and hit George from behind. The blinding green light had slightly grazed Fred's arm on it's way to the other and he was left with a hole in his sleeve and a pain in his heart.

He screamed in anger as he shot a spell back at the woman who had taken his brother's life. He felt a small sense of pride as he watched her crumple to the ground, a look of terror on her face.

"I can't believe it!" Ginny screamed. She and the others had just found George's body.

Her friends gasped and held back tears as they looked upon their friend.

"Four Weasley's down, five to go." a sly voice said behind them.

Ginny whipped around and stared into the face of Lucius Malfoy, having recovered from the spell Claire had sent at him hours before.

"What do you mean, four down?" she asked him.

Lucius smiled as he held up another finger with each name he spoke, "George, Percy, Charlie, Arthur. All that's left is the mother, the eldest, the other twin, and you two."

"I don't think so, _Avada Kedavra!_ " as the man fell to the ground they could see who caused it. Bill glared at the still form of the death eater. He looked up at his siblings, "I'm sorry to say he's right. Dad, Charlie and Percy have all been killed too."

"And so have you." Blaise Zabini said before the green light hit Bill and he fell.

Ginny shed a single tear before she took out her revenge on the Slytherin boy.

Harry wandered though the last empty halls of the school. The fighting had been going on for days now. He was quite surprised with it all. The battle had spread throughout the castle and he had no idea if the youngest students were still safe in their dormitories or if the rooms had been broken into long before.

He reflected on the many losses of the past few days.

Arthur Weasley, killed as he defended his wife against an angry giant.

Charlie Weasley, attacked while his back was turned by an unknown death eater.

Percy Weasley, victim of the fatal dementor's kiss.

George Weasley, attacked by surprise by Bellatrix Lestrange.

Bill Weasley, murdered by Blaise Zabini after defending his friends against Lucius Malfoy.

Luna Lovegood, crushed by a section of stone wall, thrown by a giant.

Neville Longbottom, tortured, then killed, by a Slytherin 6th year.

Hermione Granger, pushed out a 5th story window by a death eater as she attempted to fight off a dementor.

Susan Bones, Justin Finch-Fletchly, Minerva McGonagall, Ernie Macmillian, Hannah Abbot, Nymphadora Tonks, and Dennis Creevey, all killed by an explosion caused by too many deadly spells colliding in the same area.

And many others he had never spoken too, all down and out because they were brave enough to fight.

Harry promised himself he would always remember them all. They wouldn't fade away or be forgotten, they would remain with him forever.

"Do you think we're safe here?" Claire asked Ron as they sat in a small room, far away from the main battle.

"No," he replied, "we aren't safe anywhere. But this is close enough." he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, he was obviously exhausted.

"I can't believe so many we knew are gone," Claire said.

"We just have to accept it and continue on," Ron told her, his eyes still closed.

"But it's so hard. Most of these people we've known for years. And you've lost family."

"I realize that. But at this moment we have to accept it, when this is over we'll have a chance to mourn. But right now we can't afford to. The second our backs our turned, we'll be among the ones people are crying over."

Claire held back her tears, "I guess."

Ron jerked up. "Shh."

"What?" Claire whispered.

The door flew open. "Well well well... what do we have here?"

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Who is it? Read and Review 


	13. Prophecy Fulfilled

Hello Peeps, guy they were mean. They didn't find me last chapter.

**Lawyers : There she is! Get her!**

alia-dreamer : Eeep! You know the disclaimer, I gotta go! Run!

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_Chapter Thirteen_

Prophecy Fulfilled

"Not you!" Ron yelled as he looked into the face of Draco Malfoy, looming over them.

"Yes, Wealsey, it's me." he said sarcastically, "you shouldn't seem so thrilled."

"What do you want Malfoy?" Ron asked him coldly.

"If this were any other day at school my usual goal would be to torment you," he explained, "but as this is war I believe I am here to kill you. But first I'll have some fun," he smirked at them.

Ron and Claire got to their feet, ready for a fight. Claire was surprised to see that Malfoy seemed untouched. She remembered all too well how he looked a few days previous when he had been hit with five different curses at once.

"How about a duel Weasley?" he asked mockingly.

"Bring it on," Ron replied.

They sent spells back and forth with little success. They were evenly matched, deflecting and dodging eachother's curses.

"How about a little break before we continue?" Malfoy asked.

"I don't trust you," Ron told him plainly, breathing heavily.

"You seem tired," he mentioned, not giving up. He set his wand on the floor, "See? We'll take a break."

Ron eyed him suspiciously, then leaned against the wall to catch his breath.

In a flash, Malfoy scooped up his wand and sent a shot of light at Ron. Ron fell to the floor, not moving.

Claire screamed, "You can't!"

"I believe I just did," Malfoy said, smiling, "What a fool. Has he learned nothing in the seven years he's known me?"

Claire felt the anger and hatred of many years rise up inside her. He couldn't do this. She wouldn't let him get away with it.

_"Avada Kedavra!"_ she yelled. She saw Malfoy's horrified face, his mouth open in a silent scream, before he was thrown to the floor. She stepped forward and looked down on him. He was dead. She had killed Draco Malfoy. She had actually killed him.

Claire was surprised with her own daring. She never thought she would ever have the guts to murder someone, no matter what happened. But she did it.

She went back to Ron, still laying lifeless on the floor. She sat down beside him and was about to cry when she realized his chest was moving slowly up and down.

She put her ear to his mouth and felt hot breath wash over her.

"He's alive," she whispered quietly. She shook him slightly, wanting him to wake up. After a few moments she heard him groan in pain. He sat up and held his hand to his head. He looked at Claire and asked, "What happened?"

She burst into tears and threw her arms around him. As she cried into his shoulder she said, "I thought you were dead. I thought he killed you. I was so scared. I couldn't believe it."

Ron looked past her and saw the still form laying down the hall. "Did you... _kill_ Malfoy?"

"Yes," she said, "I thought he had killed you."

Ron smiled slightly, "You killed Malfoy."

"My gawd." Fred said as he came down the hall, "Who killed the blonde git?"

Ron and Claire stepped forward, Claire raising her hand slightly.

"Nice work Claire." Ginny said smiling.

The others around them nodded their agreement.

"You know what we have to do now though, right?" Seamus asked from the edge of the group.

"Help Harry." Ron said.

They set off to find their friend.

"Ah. ... Harry Potter."

Harry turned around. He already knew what he would find, he recognized that voice. The voice that had been haunting his thoughts, his memories, and his dreams for so many years. He turned to face Lord Voldemort.

"How nice it is to see you again," Voldemort said.

"I'm sorry I can't say the same," Harry replied.

"It does not matter. I've come to reunite you with your parents and friends."

"Really," Harry said calmly, "I guess it's too bad that I don't want to join them quite yet."

Without another word they began to duel. Harry concentrated on the sole fact that he had to win. And he would. He knew he would. He could feel the presence of his parents in the hall as he fought. He could also feel that Sirius was watching him, along with Hermione, the Weasleys, Neville, Luna, and all the others that had been killed during this war and the last.

He felt the strength he needed. He knew he could do it. And before he realized it, he had shouted Avada Kedavra and watched the green light engulf the evil man before him.

It was over. Or so he thought.

He heard laughing. Voldemort stepped forward, very much alive. "You didn't think I would let you defeat me that easily, did you? Remember, I have taken many steps toward immortality. And I have succeeded."

Harry was stunned. He didn't know what to do. Voldemort had won, that was all there was to it.

He heard footsteps behind him. He didn't dare turn around for fear that Voldemort would finish him off the second his back was turned. When the footsteps stopped beside him he glanced to his sides and smiled.

"How's it going?" Ron asked.

"Need some help?" Fred offered.

Filling the corridor stood dozens of the students and adults including the remaining Weasleys, Claire, Seamus, Dean, Lupin, Hagrid, and Dumbledore himself.

Voldemort laughed, "As I've just informed your dear friend Potter, I have succeeded in my quest for immortality. I just survived his attempt at Avada Kedavra. Which, even if I were mortal, was so weak it would have failed anyway. What makes you think any of you can do any better?"

"As I've heard," Dumbledore said, "there is power in numbers."

As if it had been planned all along the entire group bellowed "Avada Kedavra!" The combined power did what one spell could not. Voldemort flew backwards and crumpled on the floor. They watched as his spirit rose from the body and attempted to escape. Dumbledore quickly said a series of words and the spirit flew into a small bottle in his out stretched hand. He corked it and held it up.

"He was almost right," Dumbledore told the group, "he may have _almost_ achieved immortality, but we were able to do better. And now, I believe, it is up to Harry to fulfill the prophecy and defeat Lord Voldemort once and for all."

Dumbledore handed him the bottle and somehow Harry knew exactly what to do.

He muttered an incantation to return the spirit to mortality, then swiftly threw the bottle to the ground. A great scream filled the corridor and the spirit vanished. Everyone let out a sigh of relief and a feeling washed over them as if the sun had just come out after a long, violent storm.

Dumbledore gave Harry a warm smile. "Finally," he said, "it's over."

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Malfoy is a bloody git. Voldemort is dead, yippie. Read and Review! 


	14. Saying Goodbye Epilogue

Hey Everyone, here is the epilouge. I'll miss you all, well, except for those annoying lawyers. **Lawyers : Yeah...Hey! **If you want to read my other material, mine not mandi's, go to Earth Angel. For more mandi, you need to read and review!

Disclaimer: **Lawyers:** **Just check the other chapters.**

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_Chapter 14_

Saying Goodbye

"We are gathered today, to remember those who gave their lives, to protect us. To protect this school. And to protect the entire wizarding world," Dumbledore said solemnly as he stood before the slightly less crowded Great Hall. "The war is finally over, but many internal battles are still being fought. We are all overcome with grief for our lost loved ones. But know that they died for a most noble cause, and that someday we will all rejoice when we are reunited with them at the end of our own lives. Alas, that is little comfort for the pain we feel now. We have lost friends, family, teachers, and fellow students. People we have known all our lives and people we only _feel_ as if we've known them all our lives. I will now read a list of these people..."

It had been only two days since Voldemort was defeated but it felt like forever to Claire. The past couple of days had been spent removing the bodies, cleaning the mess from the battle, and repairing the castle.

Only when they had finished did they learn of the extent of the damage and of all that had gone on.

The death eaters had succeeded in breaking into two of the three sealed common rooms. In the face of danger the young Gryffindors and Ravenclaws had fought bravely, despite their lack of experience. A few students in the area had come to their aid and managed to defeat the death eaters before too many young lives were lost. Unfortunately there were still casualties and everyone felt for the loss.

The young Hufflepuffs, however, had remained safe and everyone was grateful for that.

All the giants had been successfully taken down, but unfortunately that included Grawp. Hagrid was very upset about the loss of his little brother and it showed.

In total four teachers had been killed. Professor McGonagall, Professor Sinistra, Professor Flitwick, and Professor Snape. Their positions were not yet filled.

Many students had been killed. A lot of them were friends of Claire, Ron, and Harry. They included Hermione, Neville, Luna, multiple Weasleys, Cho, and others.

The death eaters that had survived by the end had all been sent to Azkaban, without trial, for a life sentence.

The witches and wizards who had died had all been buried in a cemetery newly built near Hogsmeade. The previous day the entire student body went there to pay their last respects to their friends and family. There were flowers by every gravestone.

And now they were all gathered in the room where the battle had started, listening to the names of those who were lost. People could be heard crying throughout the room. Some had their faces buried in their arms. Others just stared up at Dumbledore with clouded eyes.

Claire sat between Ron and Harry. Ron had his arms around her and Harry sat next to them, occasionally glancing at the two when a name of one of their friends was called.

A few of the people who had been killed decided to come back as ghosts. They stood behind Dumbledore as he read his list. There were about ten of them in all, some who were just to afraid to move on, and others who felt they should stay behind to tell the story to future generations after all the others had gone.

Luna was one of them. She had come to Harry the day after the war ended to speak with them.

"Luna!" Claire had screamed when she saw her semitransparent friend.

"Hello Claire." Luna had replied, smiling slightly.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked her.

"I've decided to stay behind and join the other Hogwarts ghosts."

"But why?"

"To tell the story. Besides, I don't really have much reason to move on."

"It's very nice to see you then." Harry had told her.

Now she was behind Dumbledore in the Great Hall. She gave a small wave to the three.

When the assembly was over everyone returned back to their dormitories. Some went and spoke to the counselors that had been assigned to stay at the school for the remainder of the year for anyone who needed guidance. Claire, Ron and Harry simply made their way up to bed.

The rest of the year went by in a blur for Claire. Before she new it she was taking her final exams and appreciating her last few days in Hogwarts.

"Can you believe there's only two days left?" Harry asked as the three of them sat under their favorite tree by the lake.

"I'm really going to miss it here," Ron said.

"It's really too bad Hermione's gone," Claire said, "she'd be enjoying every last minute of this. Didn't she want to teach here after she graduated?"

"Yeah," Harry replied.

"I still will," a voice said behind them. They turned around to come face to face with Hermione's ghost.

"What...?" Harry said.

"What're you doing here Hermione?" Ron asked.

"I decided to come back," she replied, "I just wanted to wait awhile, I couldn't stand to come back so soon. It hurt too much."

"We missed you a lot," Ron told her.

"I missed you guys too. But I'm really glad to be back, even if I am... dead."

"What did you say about still being able to teach here?" Harry asked.

"I spoke to Dumbledore and he said I'll be allowed to teach Muggle Studies. Not my first choice but since I'm no longer able to use my wand I was all for it," she smiled.

"Congratulations," her friends said smiling back.

"And luckily I'll have some friends. Luna's here and so are a couple of students that were in my Arithmancy and Ancient Runes classes. Myrtle's a bit more easy to deal with these days too. I believe I'll be just fine."

"That's so good to hear," Claire said.

"I cannot believe it's over." Ron said as they sat on the Hogwarts express for the last time.

"I know what you mean," Harry told his best friend, "it feels like just yesterday that Hagrid was bursting through the door to tell me I was a wizard."

"It feels so weird to know that we're not coming back next year," Claire said.

"Yeah," Ron agreed.

"But think about it," Harry said, "now we have our whole lives ahead of us."

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Read and Review, oh and yey, Hermione died! At least, I think that that is good? 


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